Curses Aren't the Only Change
by Tovath
Summary: Dead While in England Sailor V runs into a couple of Martial Artists
1. Chapter 1

Curses Aren't The Only Change

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I think that you are smart enough to figure out how much of this I own.

There are many different parallel realities where the same people live sometimes greatly different lives because they or the people around them have made different choices, due to the butterfly effect simply stopping to look at the sky instead of the ground is all it takes sometimes. For example in one cluster of worlds lives a young man named Ranma Saotome, but what happens to him is different in each one. In one he ends up becoming the ruler of a large part of China and in another world he ends up dying from food poisoning. And in a third, well, that is the story that will be told here.

The choice was that made the butterfly flutter in this world was that Genma Saotome decided to go to a bar. This was not an odd event, Genma went into bars all the time and this time he needed a drink even more then normal. The Neko-ken had seemed like such a good idea at the time, but the results were disastrous. Genma was not the only one who was drinking heavily at this particular bar. A lawyer named Shiro Takakita was also there. One of his clients had just died in a plane wreck along with his wife. Their daughter was still alive though and he needed to figure out what to do about the brat.

After Genma and Shiro had each had a few drinks, they ended up talking to each other. Genma gave his well used rant about his ungrateful son in hopes of getting something. Shiro thought this was a great opportunity to both get rid of the kid and get his hands on the Kino's money. So he complimented Genma on his parenting skills and suggested a deal. Genma was very pleased with this deal Shiro had planned. Not only had he managed to get a yearly payment, but his son would have a new sparing partner. The boy needed something that would take his mind off stupid things like being afraid of cats. Also he did feel a bit sorry for the girl, having both of your parents die in a plane crash is hard.

But the story really starts when Genma's son, Ranma, and Makoto Kino are sixteen in London, England.

xxxxxxx

The streets of London were blanketed in fog and in the distance Sailor V could hear Big Ben chiming the hour, but she was not worried about the time right now. She was on the trail of a thief. There he was. She hadn't lost him. She was going to track this thief to his lair and confront him there! It's bad enough, Sailor V thought, that I keep running into criminals when I am patrolling for signs of the Dark Agency, but why does this thief have to be Japanese like me? Normally Sailor V had no problems with chasing down random thieves, but tonight she was looking for something specific.

"Why ya following Genma?" asked a voice right behind her. Sailor V turned to see a brown haired girl about her age just standing there acting like being on top of a roof was perfectly normal. To cover up her surprise she said tersely. "He's a thief and must be punished."

The girl mathered something too low to be heard then she punched Sailor V off the roof in such a way that she would fall right in front of Genma.

When Sailor V got up she decided to make the best of it. She pointed dramatically at Genma. "I am Sailor V and I will stop your evil crime." Genma took one look at his attacker and burst out laughing. As one might expect Sailor V was less then happy at this reaction.

"Cersent Beam" She looked at the area where the thief had been. There was no way she could have disintegrated him right? She thought tight before being thrown into a wall. By the time she had gotten up again the thief was gone.

xxxxxxx

Minako Aino could barely get out of bed the next morning, which had been happening way to often lately. She was so tired. She briefly debated with herself about trying to convince her mom that she was too sick to go to school, but decided not to. It hadn't worked last time after all. She had just gotten was a lecture on not staying up all night partying with her friends. She really wished that had been the reason she was still sleepy in the morning, but it wasn't for one thing she had yet to make any real friends at school here. In truth she was the Soldier of Love Sailor Venus, although she was going by Sailor V right now.

Last night had been a long and fruitless one. After her defeat at the hands of that fat thief and his accomplice, she had spent half the night trying to find any sign of the missing boys. She had not been able to find so much as one trace of them. The Dark Agency had hidden them well it seemed. For some reason though she kept thinking about the face of that thief's accomplice instead of the boys, weird.

Artemis was taking a cat nap at the foot of her bed, so she poked him to get him to wake up, maybe he would have some answers. "Do you have any way of tracking down those thieves from last night."

"Minako we are suppose to be fighting the Dark Agency, not chasing down random thieves."

This was an old argument between them and before she thought about it she said "It's not my fault that when I am patrolling for signs of the Dark Agency, I come across criminals and it would be wrong to let them get away with what they are doing."

That may be true, but going out of your way, like now, to catch them is something different."

"But these thieves are different..." Minako was interrupted by her mother calling up the stairs, "Minako you better get going if you want to get to school on time."

Minako sighed, she really didn't want to go to school, "See you this afternoon' she called to Artemis as she left.

xxxxxx

That afternoon Artemis had just arrived at Minako's school when a brown haired Interpol officer he knew walked up to him.

"Hi Artemis, Minako should be getting out of school soon, right?"

"Maybe Katarina, If she didn't get detention again. What are you doing here?"

"There is a situation that I thought I should inform Minako about."

Artemis was about to ask what the situation was when Minako came rushing out of the school. "Hey Katarina," Minako noticed her friend seemed to be very serious today, "Whats up?" Katarina gestured for Minako to get in her car.

Once they were all in and belted up Katarina started to drive and she explained. "I think you know that there have been a number of disappearances of teenage boys. About two hours ago The Dark Agency sent a letter to the police saying that they will kill all the missing boys at the East Side Park at 4 this afternoon if Sailor V doesn't show up." She stopped the car and turned to Minako. "This is probably a trap you know. The Powers That Be have already sent several police squads to deal with it. You don't have to go, they should be able to take care of it."

"Can't risk it," replied Minako, "besides none of the officers have any magic do they?"

"No, I wish we could get Special Ops interested in our 'little problem." said Katarina with considerable venom.

"Don't worry, you don't need them, you got me. So where's the park?"

Katarina had apparently expected Minako to say that. "It's right around the corner," she pointed. "Good luck."

xxxxx

Artemis wanted to see his charge fight, but he knew that Sailor V would not be able to fight her best if she was worrying about protecting him and he was to small to be of much help in the fight. So he went up a tree, after all he unlike normal cats did not need the help pf a fireman to get down from a tree.

Oddly enough there was a large pink blimp hovering over the park wit the words Petite Pandora: World's Cutest Wink. Artemis could think two reasons why that thing could be here. Either this was a setup to make Sailor V look bad by having her attack a cultural icon or the Dark Agency had worse taste then he thought possible. The question of which one it was got answered when a cute little girl was lowed from the blimp. When the girl, who Artemis guessed was Petite Pandora, was half way down she winked, and the wink did something but Artemis was not sure what.

"Sailor V! Where are you? I don't see you." called out Petite Pandora, "Ah, there you are. I'll get you for killing my sister, Pandora, Sailor V!"

As the last line was said Petite Pandora transformed into a youma that was neither little nor cute. It was then, as he saw Sailor V pushing though the crowd to get to the youma, that he figured out what that wink had done. However before he could call out a warning, Petite Pandora yelled "Kill her my slaves." and every one in the crowd turned and started attacking Sailor V.

Artemis had to do something. He tried to unravel the spell, but he was unable to grasp the threads of it.

xxxxx

"Genma is being even stupider and more annoying then usual' thought Makoto as she ran, "he didn't have to be so insulting when I just asked why he decided to bring us here, and he had no right to say that about Ryouga just because he finally asked me out on a date.'

Makoto's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of someone gloating over their immanent victory and she decided a fight was just what she needed to take her mind off things. Besides whoever was gloating deserved to have their face kicked in on general principals. So even though she had no idea who the Dark Agency was, she set off towards the noise. When she reached the center of the park where the fighting was she saw the qloater was probably not human and not even doing any of the fighting.

xxxxx

"Man can't I even go for a walk without some looney ranting." yelled a brown haired girl as she punched Petite Pandora.

"You are going to regret that, human!"

"So what's a wimp like ya, who can't fight their own battles gonna do about it?"

"This" yelled Petite Pandora and thew a summoned blade at the girl.

"That the best ya can do?" said the girl as she dodged the blade and used her momentum from that to throw Petite Pandora into a tree, at least that is what Artemis thought had happened. It had gone by rather quick. Then as the girl turned her head he saw the of Jupiter on her forehead.

The girl was Jupiter. He had found another one of them. Artemis needed to get Jupiter's transformation wand to her, but how...wait Artemis noticed something that, while it wouldn't help him directly on getting Jupiter her wand, was even more important, a loose thread in the mind control sell. He pulled on the thread and the whole spell unraveled like a cheap swether and all the people who had been controlled collapsed unconsious.

xxxxx

'Man, this thing's tougher then I thought it would be' thought Makoto 'And now what is it doing?' she could see it summoning a whole lot of blades which the monster threw at Makoto all at once, pinning her to a tree.

"Now, I have you" the monster said as she walked over to finish the job and promptly got hit by a rock that Ranma had thrown.

"I'm not letting ya hurt my sister."

"Another bra-" started the monster.

"Crescent Beam." The girl in the funny looking outfit from last night yelled as she shot off a really cool attack that disintegrated the monster thing.

"is your shoulder ok?" she asked the girl.

"It's just a flesh wound." said Makoto trying not to winch as she pulled the blade out."How did ya do that attack?"

"That is what I want to talk to you about." said a white cat as it dropped down on the blond girl's shoulder.

"C...C...Cat" yelled Ranma and ran off. Makoto of course followed after him, cursing Genma.

xxxxx

As the brown haired girl ran off Sailor V realized why she seemed so familiar, that was the same girl that had been with that fat thief and tried to follow her, but she lost her very fast. "Who was that girl?" she said to her self as she de-transformed.

Artemis, who had just barely managed to stay on his charge's shoulder said. "I believe she is Sailor Jupiter."

"What you got to be kidding me, her. That can't be true." Minako looked at Artemis aghast that a known thief would be a Sailor Senshi.

"I am not kidding, didn't you see the symbol of Jupiter on her forehead?"

"Um, well I did see something, but still..."

xxxxx

As Ranma and Makoto came into the small and dingy apartment Genma noticed Makoto's wound and yelled, "What you got in a fight, girl, you haven't been training hard enough if some mugger in this lousy country can hurt you."

Only her wound stopped Makoto from beating some sense into Genma. "It wasn't a mugger I was fighting ya fat fool. It was a monster of some sort and I threw the damn thing though a tree and it wasn't hurt in the least. If you would just get off your fat ass and teach us a chi attack then I woulda killed it no time flat."

Genma was about to give a scathing reply when he stopped and thought, a rare thing. He did have those schools he created. "In the next few days, I'll test the two of you to see if you're ready, so be prepared."

"Yes, sensei" Makoto said glad that Genma was being serious for once.

xxxxx

That night after a long conversation with Artemis about the other senshi, Minako's parents dragged her to a play which she wasn't paying much attention to, in fact she didn't even remember that the name of it was 'Midsummer Nights Dream.' She was to busy worrying about that brown-haired girl she kept running into when she was Sailor V. First that girl stopped her from catching a thief, then she helped me when I was fighting Petite Pandora, I don't get it. And if that isn't enough now Artemis is saying that she might be a Senshi herself how can a defender of Love and Justice be... oh cute boy.

The boy that had derailed Minako's thought process was sitting two rows down from her and was concentrating intently on the stage. He had red hair and a very cute face. Minako so wanted to introduce herself to him, but when she started to get up her mother stopped her. "Minako just watch the play. You can get up at intermission, honey." Minako paid a lot more attention to the play after that since she wanted to have something to talk about with that cute boy at intermission.

"Speak of all loves! I swoon almost with fear. No? then I well perceive you are not nigh: Either death or you I'll find immediately." With the actress playing Hermia saying these lines the act was over and it was time for intermission and Minako went hunting for the cute red-headed boy. She soon found him looking at the list of plays being preformed this season.

"Do you come to these kinda things often?"

Tomas turned to see the person who had addressed him. Where he could not say that the girl standing before him was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, for he had seen many beautiful ladies at court, she did have a certain spark that was quite attractive to him.

"Yes, I try to come to William Shakespeare's plays when ever I can. I am very grateful that I was able to make it to this one."

"Cool, so could you help explain some of it to me? English isn't my first language. I'm Minako Aino by the way."

xxxxxxxx

"Thanks Puck...Puck" Ryouga looked around but Puck was nowhere to be found.

"How did you find us, Ryouga?" asked Makoto as she gave him a hug.

Ryouga turned bright red because the cutest girl in the whole world, in his opinion, was hugging him. "Um, I got, um, lost..."

Makoto let go before he got a nosebleed. "See I told you that your ability to get lost would be of use some time. The English you taught me has been much more useful then what the teacher taught us was. Bet the other languages ya taught me will be useful too."

Ryouga rubbed the back of his head. "Glad it was helpful. I was worried when I heard about the slave traders"

"Slave traders" said Makoto.

"Haruka heard some rumors about a slave ring and she thought that had something to do with your disappearance." actually Ryouga himself had been worrying that Genma might have sold them to the slave traders.

"That must have been why we left in such a hurry. That idiot we coulda taken them." said Makoto, "So Haruka is chasing down slave traders. I'm dealing with a girl in silly outfits and me and Ranma are learning how to fight monsters. What have you been up to?"

"Well I just found out some about how to deal with my curse after I helped this King or Lord or something by getting some herbs that they needed to heal the wounds he got from a one eyed warrior. They said I should worry about finding people not places."

xxxxxx

When Ranma and Makoto got back from the Cane fighting lessons that Genma had somehow arranged for them, the room they were staying in was empty and Genma's pack was gone. There was a note written on a random scrap of paper laying in the middle of the floor. It read "Gone gathering supplies. be back in a week."

"Think he left 'cause of Ryouga yelling 'prepare to die'?"Makoto asked Ranma trying to make a joke of it.

"Naw the idiot, probably heard about some good loot in some country house." said Ranma.

They checked but Genma had, of course, grabbed all the food and money before he left. This had happened before, but then he had only been gone for couple of days.

xxxxx

Neither Minako or Artemis knew how to go about finding the new senshi, but they both knew they had to find her. Since they had no better ideas and, they had run into her twice by accident, they were just walking around hoping to run into her again. It worked. As she was walking though a basketball court that she liked to boy watch at when she had the time,she saw the very person she was looking for. Well technically both of the people since the girl who Artemis said was Jupiter was with her brother. They were talking to a boy about their age who was wearing a baseball cap.

"Didn't say she was some kind of wizard with the ball?" said baseball cap.

"So ya still lost, just give us the money ya bet and-"

The boy took a wild swing at Jupiter's brother and next thing Minako knew the boy was on the ground and Jupiter was holding his wallet.

"Man, you're loaded." she took five pounds out of it and threw the wallet back to the boy. Then as the boy ran off she turned and saw Minako.

xxxxx

"Um, I have been hoping I would find you soon." a blond haired Japanese girl that Makoto had just caught staring at her said.

Her response was short and to the point. "Do I know ya?"

The girl rubbed the back of her head. "I guess you wouldn't recognize me like this. Last time you saw me you got pinned to a tree by a bunch of blades. How's your shoulder doing anyway?"

"Fine, what do ya want?" Makoto had figured that the girl must be that thief catcher, but what would she want. After all I helped her with that last monster, that should count for something.

Minako saw the stormy expression on the girls face when she asked what Minako wanted. "I just want to talk that's all."

"You buy me and my brother lunch and you can talk while we eat."

"Ok," the girl said slowly, ""I'm Minako Aino."

"Makoto, he's Ranma."

xxxxx

This 'deal' surprised Minako but she agreed to it. Minako looked over both of there grimy torn clothes, Kami was that the same shirt Makoto had been wearing yesterday, it looked like it still had blood stains. "I'll order some pizza. What would you like?"

"Pepperoni, sausage..." Makoto listed off about ten different types of pizza.

"Um, so which one of them do you want?"

"All of 'em."

"Uh, right, Starve a pizza, eat cold feet."

"That don't make no sense." said Ranma before Makoto could.

Minako wasn't listening though, she had just pulled out her cell phone and call the pizza place thinking the whole time that there was no way they could eat that much. "Ok, they said the pizzas should be done in 30 minutes. Do you want to head over there now?"

"Sure."

"So why did you run off so fast yesterday?"

"My bro has a slight fear of cats." said Makoto

"Do not I'm not afraid of anything especially not something silly like ca...c... felines, stupid pops."

"How is it your father's fault?" asked Minako

Ya don't wanta know."

"Oh" said Minako "So where are you going to school?"

"Drasi Jr high." said Makoto

"Not sure we're still going there" said Ranma.

"That's an all boys school in Japan." Minako didn't want to admit it but she knew the name of every boy's school in Japan.

"Ya that's why we're not going there anymore." said Ranma.

"Only been three weeks so we're still on the roll and so we are to still going there." retorted Makoto.

"How and why were you going to a boy's school? You're a girl."

"Genma said it was training. Anyway I wasn't the only girl going there."

Minako thought about asking more about that statement, but decided not to. She might not like the answer, instead she tried to figure out how to go about telling Makoto about being a Sailor Senshi without Artemis around to help. She was going to try her best.

xxxxx

Makoto was too busy eatting to pay much attention to what Minako walking about, something about Grand Destiny and stuff.

"Let me get this right ya want me to were a silly outfit and fight for love and Justice 'cause a cat said so." Makoto said in a tone that said you must be crazy.

Minako, of course, caught on to the most useless thing in Makoto's statement."The Senshi uniforms are not silly."

"Yes they are. Why do you think Pops started laughing when he saw you?" said Ranma.

"Because he's an idiot." What ever reaction

"Ya got that right." Ranma

"Couldn't have said it better myself" Makoto

Minako stared a moment surprised that they agreed with her, instantly. "So are you ready to be a Senshi?"

"Naw, got more important things to do." replied Makoto.

"What could be more important then fighting for love and justice?"

"Getting enough money to eat. Food is important."

"I live at 2234 W Eastmon Dr, if you change your mind." said Minako as Makoto and Ranma left.

xxxxxxxx

The rest of the week passed with out much going on, just several fights in the case of Ranma and Makoto. At the end of it a badly beaten up Genma made his way back into town. He had claw marks on his clothes and he was almost as freaky around cats as his son. One can guess that his trip was less then a success.

"These English are not very hospitable." complained Genma

"Ya mean they won't let ya steal their stuff."

"No I should have not bothered to-"

"leave in the first place." finished Ranma

"Now come on, boy, I was just testing you to see if you were ready. The Yamasen-ken and its brother art the Umisen-ken are based of different types of thievery. Yamasen-ken is in essence breaking in though the front door of a house to steal things. The Umisen-ken is the essence of a thief, who sneaks in the back door, being as quiet as possible and taking belongings without being detected. Now these two arts are too dangerous to use and so I have sealed them and I will not be teaching them to either of you."

Genma's speech was interrupted by his son whapping him on the head, "Then why ya even mentioning them ya old fool?"

"If you would just give me a second, boy." yelled Genma then he cleared his throat and tried to look serious again, "Anyway while I won't teach you those, I will teach you several techniques that I, um, used for inspiration when I created the Yamasen-ken and the Umisen-ken."

"So an art based on thievery uses stolen techniques." said Makoto

Genma asked the heavens "What ever did I do to get such disrespectful children?"

It was not the heavens that answered him though, it was Ranma, who started to list off all Genma's 'training accidents.'

Genma was caught between a number of emotions that he didn't know how to express. In the end he just threw the scrolls with the techniques on them at Ranma and stomping out. He had been right when he thought that having a sparing partner would make his son a better fighter. Unfortunately those two had also learned to work together in a fight and he could not best them both at once.

AN:

This is loosely a rewrite of an earlier fic of mine, Timeline 4536. That story was getting rather out of my control, so when Clancrusher suggested rewriting it I decided that was a good idea. Thanks go to Spokavriel for coming up with the name and other stuff and Anime Freak317 for prereading.

Time periods: To keep things simple in this story, the Silver Millennium is going to only refer to the time period that the Senshi first existed in. The Moon Kingdom will refer to the Kingdom (or should that be Queendom) that Queen Serenity ruled.

Ages: This is a point that gave me more trouble then I thought it would, since the inner Senshi are all suppose to be in junior high and Ranma is in high school, but I need some of them to be going to the same school. I thought of many ways to get around this, but in the end I decided just to make the inner Senshi a year older, so they are now finishing up their last year of junior high as the story starts.

AN for 2.0

Thanks to Mike Koos and Spokavriel for the C+C


	2. Chapter 2

Curses Aren't The Only Change

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I think that you are smart enough to figure out how much of this I own.

It stalked the foggy streets of London, hunting down the thief who had messed up it's home and dared to try to steal from it. It was almost there. The thief was in this city. It would get it's revenge on Genma Soatome the giant cat thought as it prowled though the streets of London.

Irusan of Knowth was not known for his forbearance of insults. He had once attacked and carried off Bard Seanchan for making an insulting song about him, The bard was able to get away with no more then a fright due to Bardic immunity. Genma had no such protection.

At dawn Irusan stopped in front of a run down apartment building sniffing. The thief was on the second floor of this building. This was no problem for the King of the Cats; He simply jumped up and sliced though the wall. He then pulled Genma out, no problem or anything like that.

What he did not expect was that he would be attacked by a young human male who was acting like a cat whose territory had just been violated. Genma tried to take advantage of the distraction to, presumably, flee. Irusan would not let this though and stopped Genma by using his leg as a scratching post. No one noticed that the other person in the room disappeared.

xxxxxx

It was Saturday thought Minako as she woke up. She always had liked Saturdays, because she didn't have to worry about her homework until tomorrow. She was planning to see her friend Katarina this afternoon in much more pleasant circumstances then last time they had seen each other, but aside from that she could just goof off all day. Hopefully today would be peaceful and nothing would happen to cause her to go back "on duty" so to speak.

Any hopes Minako had of a peaceful day were shattered when Makoto came though the window, fortunately the windows was open so it wasn't shattered itself. "Look my brother needs help I'll accept that stupid senshi thing, if ya can help him?"

While Minako was in shock about Makoto's entrance Artemis asked what she needed help with. Being that Makoto had just seen a giant talking cat, a normal sized one was no problem. "A big one of you guys is trying to kill Genma for trying to steal stuff. Usually we just leave and let him take care of it if we can. Couldn't this time 'cause Ranma fell into Neko- ken real quick.

This didn't make much sense the two listening to it, but Minako thought she got the main point. Someone or something was attacking Ranma and Makoto was asking her for help. "Lets go, you can explain more on the way."

xxxxxxx

As they got to the rundown tenement near the dock yards they could hear the sounds of yowling and battle. Ranma was on all fours and fighting a cat the size of a horse. Minako transformed and started a standard speech about love and Justice. The cat looked at her oddly and said "Why are you calling me names if you are going to help me take blood price from Genma for his attempts at thievery of my palace?"

Sailor V shook her head violently. She didn't know what a blood price was, but it didn't sound good. Meanwhile Makoto took advantage of the distraction to try and punch the cat, but her punch never landed. It was stopped halfway by a young man about her age.

xxxxxxx

A young red headed man named Tomas stood on top of Big Ben focusing his draconic senses on finding who he sought. He had been planning to do this to find Sailor V rather then King Irusan. He had been asked by Lady Titania, she never gave orders although she could, if he could take care of a group calling themselves the Dark Agency. Sailor V was to the best of anyone's knowledge fighting this Dark Agency, There he had it now. Time to go deal with a Royal nuisance.

Once he came onto the scene though, he saw that this had actually been a stroke of good luck for there was Sailor V. Watching from the rooftop for a moment to best decide how to approach, he noticed that The girl with Sailor V was about to attack the distracted beast. Grabbing the arm as he landed, he turned to the arrogant noble. "King Irusan, you can not call for a blood price for so little an offense."

"That thief," Irusan as he pointed to an unconscious Genma with a forepaw, "Almost broke one of my son's legs with some attack he called 'Moko Kaimon Ha' as he escaped."

As this was going on, Ranma-neko caught the scent of something REALLY good. So good that the cat had a craving to find this delectable and acted on it. Makoto tried to take off after her brother to make sure he didn't get into more trouble, but she found that Tomas was still holding her arm and he was more then strong enough to keep holding on. So she socked him with her other fist with out thinking, when he let go she took off after Ranma.

xxxxxx

Now to understand what happened next one has to understand that while Ranma thought he was a cat when in Neko-ken, he still had a human brain that could make assessments. In this case it went like this fighting playing, so opponent friend. You share food with friends. So when he smelled fish he went to go get some to share with his new friend.

What he smelled was the barrels of salmon being unloaded off a ship down at the dockyards. This led to a great deal of confusion and fear among the dock workers as they saw a young man walking on his hands and knees jumped up, slashed though the ropes that were being used to unload some barrels of fish and running off with one of the barrels.

As Ranma-neko was rolling the barrel back Makoto caught up with him. When they got back Makoto remembered that she had just hit that guy when over to Tomas "Sorry 'bout that had ta make sure he didn't get into more trouble." Tomas replied that it was quite alright as Ranma-neko rolled the barrel of fish over to Irusan.

Ranma-neko opened it at the end with a punch, grabbed a fish to eat, then backed up so Irusan could get some. Which he did with great gusto, shallowing ten fish in one gulp and spitting out the bones. "Ah salmon, my favorite. This will do nicely for a blood price." He picked up the barrel and walked off with it trying to look like there was nothing he had wanted more then a barrel of fish. Really he was just trying to keep from losing any honor, he didn't want to kill the kit named Ranma for their was something so likable about him and also having a Bard around complicated things.

Tomas watched Irusan go shaking his head, to claim blood price when you are the only one who has spilled any blood was rather silly to say the least. He looked down at Genma's unconscious form 'I suppose Makoto could try to claim a blood price from Irusan, but that would be a rather stupid thing to do and I doubt they know about it anyway.'

Tomas's thoughts were interrupted by the shout of a police man who was coming around the corner "What's going on here now?" He looked straight at the group of teenagers "We have had several reports of loud noise you know. " Then he looked up at the destruction that the fight had caused. He had thought that the sounds of violence that had been reported were just from an overly loud TV not a real fight. "What the hell?!"

Makoto looked around for the quickest escape route. Cops were always trouble and beating them up just caused more trouble. Before she made any move though Tomas flashed a badge at the cop. "Special Ops, can you please call an ambulance?"

The Police officer saluted, "Right I'll go do that." He left in a hurry glad that he didn't have to deal with something that could cause that much destruction.

"Why'd ya do that?" asked Makoto after the cop left. "Doctors 'll just cause more trouble."

Artemis asked "Why would they be trouble? If you are worried about the police arresting him, we can do a thing or two about -"

"I'm not talking about that. A martial artist will heal faster then a normal person, 'cause of their chi. It always weirds them out and then they do stupid stuff."

'But awen is the only thing that can do that' thought Tomas 'Ryouga did heal fast for a human though.' The only thing he said though was not to worry because he knew a doctor who was used to unusual rates of healing. Then Ranma tried to pounce on a mouse and he asked why the hell acting was acting like that. Tomas got a quick explanation of the effects of the Neko-ken, but not the 'training' that caused it; Makoto figured it would be best not to give more reason for anyone to want to kill Genma.

When Makoto was done Minako asked "So how do you get him acting normal again?"

"After he takes a nap he should be fine."

"I darst think we have the time needed for that solution." said Tomas lapsing into an older form of English due to stress.

"Told ya having the cop call doctors was a bad idea." said Makoto trying to get Ranma to stop playing with the mouse.

"I have an idea that should work." said Artemis. Once he had everyone's attention he explained that he could try to do a Mind Meld. He didn't mention that it had been a very long time since he had done one and he had never been the best at them.

"So how do you do this Mind Meld anyway?" asked Tomas tersely hoping he wouldn't have to do anything that would hurt his ability to work with Sailor V.

"It's a ability that us Mau have. We can, um, dampen or bring to the forefront a persons memories." 'and a few other things dealing with healing the spirit to, but that would take too much time to explain,' he thought.

"Using that will work and not violate the Covenant." said Tomas.

'Like he has any right to tell me what to do' thought Artemis before putting the thought out of his mind to concentrate on Ranma. He stood before Ranma, the crescent moon on his head glowing, and he dived into Ranma's subconscious. He found himself, facing another cat in an area filled with mist. The other cat immediately jumped at Artemis and he was forced to defend himself. As he jumped back to catch his breath and figure out what the hell was going on, the other cat shot claws out of his paws. There was no way for him to dodge all of them so he braced for the attack pulling his magic around him in hopes that he would not get killed.

And the claws disintegrated against the shield the now human Artemis was holding. Artemis didn't notice the change as he drew his sword and sliced the cat in half. "Ok now what?" thought Artemis, "If this is Ranma's subconscious then I guess I should calm the mist down." As he did this some of the mist swirled around him and then the mist became as calm as a Buddhist monk meditating and Artemis 'woke up' back in the real world. "I think I was able to fix Ranma's fear of cats, but, I think there are a few things Makoto didn't mention about the Neko-ken"

Artemis would have continued, but Ranma had woken up. "Uh what school was the martial artist who hit me?"

Before anyone else could respond to the odd question Makoto answered it "Cat"

"Oh right there was a big one of those wasn't there." Ranma said as he got up "Where did he go?"

"He left after you gave him a barrel of fish."

"Why'd I do that?"

"Beats me" This little interchange between siblings was interrupted by the whine of an ambulance. The ambulance came and Genma was put in the back of it. Ranma said he better go along with them "ta make sure Pops doesn't get into more trouble.

"Right, I've somethings to take care of with these guys." replied Makoto.

As the ambulance left Minako said that she knew a good cafe where they could go to talk.

"That sounds good," said Tomas, "but first I think it would be best to dispense with any glamories, do you not think?"

"Huh'

"I think he means detransform?" Artemis hadn't heard the word glamories in a long time, but the word seemed to strike a cord in his memory. Minako detransformed and Tomas took off the glamorie that changed his features.

Tomas gave a full formal bow did so and said "Bard Tomas Drake, at your service."

"Hey you're that cute boy I met at that play!" Minako exclaimed then put her hands over her mouth embarrassed that she had said something so stupid. To cover up her embarrassment Minako said, "Well come on let's get to the cafe," and started to walk in the direction of said cafe. Tomas and Makoto shrugged and followed her as Artemis jumped on to her shoulder.

When they got to the cafe Minako ordered some scones which she said were really good. Makoto didn't know what a scone was but figured that food was food and by now she was hungry.

"What ya want me to do about this Senshi thing?" asked Makoto.

Minako had been rather distracted when Makoto had made her offer to become a Senshi. "What you want to become a Senshi now."

"You helped, I keep my promises."

Artemis said "Makoto we would have been glad to help you whether or not you had said that."

Makoto shrugged "Doesn't matter I said I would and I don't go back on my word."

"Alright, here's your henshin wand." As Artemis did the flip to get Jupiter's wand he noticed that there was something off about his magic. Nevertheless he gave Makoto the wand. "Um you might want to wait until later to try transforming."

Tomas had kept quite though all of this, but now that it was resolved he asked what it was that they were fighting since he would be fighting it to.

In the rush of events there was another thing that Minako had forgotten. It was that she had been going to meet with Katarina at her favorite cafe at eleven. It was now eleven and she was at her favorite cafe, so Katarina arrived. "Who are your friends, Minako?"

"Oh, hi Katarina. This is Tomas Drake, he's in Special Ops."

"Oh, so the mysterious Special Ops has finally made its appearance has it."

Tomas heard the extra emphasis that was put on the finally. "I am deeply sorry I was not able to be here sooner. Odin decided to attack us and we needed every able body to repel him."

xxxxxx

Artemis wasn't paying much attention to the conversation going on around him. There was definitely something wrong with his magic flows. They seemed to be changing more every moment . It seemed that there was some new power interacting with it, but this new power wasn't any sort of magic, but yet it didn't seem foreign let alone malevolent. He tried to tough this new power and next thing he knew he was on the floor, human and naked. At the same time a shield appeared on Ranma's arm.

What the fucking hell!Artemis heard in his head.

It sounded like Ranma's voice, and he tried to respond. Um Ranma can you hear me?

Yah I hear ya, I hear ya. Now where are ya and why did this shield appear on my arm?

I'm at the Ascot Cafe,Artemis sent. He was going to ask about this shield Ranma had mentioned but Ranma interrupted him.

Ya right how does that work, Its a bit far away_. _

_I think we better talk face to face,_ I hope we can figure out what is going on thought Artemis. Just stay there, we'll come and get you_._

'Right' thought Ranma, then he saw the doctor coming over so he hid the shield behind his back.

"Ranma, ah, there you are. Your father he is asleep right now. He seems to be recovering from his injuries well. In order to keep just how 'well' he is recovering though he will need to stay in the hospital for at least a week." said Dr. Clyton, "Do you need a ride anywhere."

"Naw, friends will be coming to pick me up soon." Sure enough soon after that Katarina showed up with everyone else in her car. Artemis was now back in his cat form having been able to change back when they got close to the hospital.

Without any preamble Ranma asked "What's this and why the hell did it show up on my arm?"

"Um it's a shield," Artemis said "I think it is the one I used to carry... back then."

"Why did ya shield appear on my arm?" said Ranma looking annoyed.

"Probably for the same reason that I just turned into a human in the middle of the cafe." Artemis stopped in thought "Ranma try this, imagining a safe place for the shield, then put it there."

"Why"

"Just do it." Ranma concentrated and did just as Artemis said "Just great, you use chi right? Tell me how you do something with it will you."

"Chi doesn't work that way. I can't just tell you."

Tomas interjected a comment "He's right, if this 'chi' stuff is anything like awen then it can't be explained like magic, not really."

"Oh shut up, I'm trying to figure this out and I don't need your help."

"I don't really understand much of this, but I don't think it is going to be solved in one day. So shouldn't we see about some place for these two," Katarina gesturing to Ranma and Makoto, "to stay. You did say their apartment was trashed."

"I could find you a..." started Tomas

"No, no I think it would be best if they stayed with us, what with magical connection and stuff." interrupted Artemis.

"In that case I will get going for now. I will meet up with you at a later date to see about pooling our resources."

After Tomas left Katarina offered to drive them to Minako's house. An offer which Ranma and Makoto turned down because they were nervous about being around a cop. They told Minako they would meet her there.

This gave Minako a chance to talk to Artemis, which she didn't waste. Right away she asked him why he was being so rude to Tomas.

"I don't trust him, for one thing his magical aura is not right for a human. And for another thing there were Bards around during the Silver Millennium. Just about every noble on Earth seemed to host one. Anytime there was a delegation from Earth, even if it was just a trade delegation about buying ore. Most people thought that it was just because the Earth nobles liked music, but I know there was something more, some other purpose to their presence then simply music. I never could find out what though."

"Why are you saying that Tomas is an enemy? He is so cute there is no way he could be one." said Minako "He said he was in Special Ops after all. If he's with the police he must be good."

"Minako stop jumping to conclusions. I am just saying we don't know anything about him. If I remember correctly Prince Endymion said that they first thought something was wrong when Beryl had one killed or something," Artemis saw how Minako's face lit up at this, "But we also don't know anything about this Special Ops either and they seem to have taken pains to make sure people don't know much about them. You do remember what happened when Katarina tried to find out more about them, right. What really worries me is that back then Bards were not allowed to fight, but they obviously can now."

xxxxxxx

"Just wait here while I go talk to my mom, ok" Minako said then she went inside. She found her mother in the kitchen getting ready to make dinner. "Mom, some friends of mine have some trouble."

"Oh, what sort of trouble?" asked Mamami Aino hoping it wasn't something to do with drugs or unwanted pregnancy. She didn't want to know that her daughter was involved in either of these, but rather afraid she might be given the hours she had been keeping.

"There was a, uh, gas leak in their apartment and now their father is in the hospital and they don't have a place to stay." said Minako thinking she is never going to buy this.

Minako's mother was not expecting this. ""Don't they have any relatives to stay with or something."

"No they have just come here from Japan themselves, so they don't know anyone."

'Maybe I can find out what is going on with Minako if... she thought, "Well then why don't you let them stay here for a few days."

"Really?" Minako wasn't expecting her mother to give in so quickly, "Thanks mom. I'll go tell Ranma and Makoto right now." As her daughter went running off Mamami realized that she didn't even now the gender of the two people who were going to be staying here.

xxxxxxx

"So your plan failed!"

The woman was scared but she didn't let it show. "The failure was not because of my plan. If Petite Pandora had followed it then thing would have worked fine, but she had to go challenge Sailor V."

"She was your underling, so it is your responsibility. As for Sailor V we must find some way to deal with her, but that is not for now. What are your current plans?"

"The Dark Guys are about to have their debut concert. They will gather us much energy."

"Good, I also need you to send a team of youma to France to take care of an archaeologist. We can not have him finding to much out about us. Don't fail again, Fluorite." As the man left Fluorite shivered, the rewards for success might be good but the punishments for failure were quite severe.

Thanks go to Animefreak317 for prereading and mihome21, deathgeonous, Chris ShadowMoon, enderverse and Lerris for leaving reviews,


	3. Chapter 3

Curses Aren't The Only Change

Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I think that you are smart enough to figure out how much of this I own.

A meeting was held next Sunday between the Sailor Senshi, Avalon and other parties concerning what should be done to rid England of the Dark Agency. They met at Minako's house so they wouldn't have to worry about interruptions, for Mr Aino was at work and Mrs Aino was off running errands and she said she might go visit Genma at the hospital. The meeting was interrupted by Ryouga though, who came walking down the hall looking lost and spotted Tomas.

"Hey Tomas, what are you doing in Peru?"

"You're in England, silly." said Makoto very glad to see him.

Anyone with eyes could see what Ryouga's feelings for Makoto were by seeing the way that his face lit up as he turned towards Makoto.

"Hi ,Makoto, um, I found some spices I thought you might like."

He handed Makoto a jar and got a big hug in return.

"Ya know this guy, Ryouga?" asked Ranma pointing to Tomas.

"Oh yeah, I was traveling though Egypt, I think, when I met him. Some lady named Titania needed help getting some herbs for her husband. He had been hurt in a fight, I think. I, of course, offered to help and afterwards Tomas and Puck helped me find the two of you." said Ryouga.

Tomas nodded as he thought over that incident himself. Ryouga had stumbled into Avalon at just the right time. He had been lost of course. That was how humans usually ended up in Avalon.

Oberon had been injured by a Norse spear and lay near death. The only thing that could heal him was Silen herbs. The problem was that Silen herbs could only be harvested by a mortal. There hadn't been one of them at court for sometime.

Wait a minute Avalon wasn't... "Ryouga, Avalon isn't in Peru?"

"It isn't? then where is it?" Ryouga asked taking out a map, so Tomas could point out where it was.

The map wouldn't have helped even if it hadn't been a map of Paraguay. "It is both over the Western sea and underground."

"Guess you did it again, Ryouga. Ya ended up in a place that doesn't exist and this time Haruka wasn't there to talk you out of trouble." said Ranma.

"Yeah and you weren't there to get us into trouble with your big mouth..." Ryouga loved teasing his friend, rival and future brother in law about that time they had run into some tengu. "I've got a letter from Haruka actually. Things aren't going well for her."

xxxxxxx

"You are Genma Saotome, right? I'm Mamami Aino, your kids are staying at my place right now and I have a few questions to ask you."

Genma didn't much like it when people said they wanted to ask a few questions. The questions always ended up being 'How could you do something so stupid/immoral/illegal?' So he started right off telling a sob story about how he was trying his best to raise his son and how he had taken in Makoto, despite the added hardship, after he heard that she was an orphan and how he had done the best he could to train them in his school of martial arts like they wanted yet he was bedeviled at every turn as he tried to build a good life for his family. "And then while coming home from my second job I overheard some Yakuza talking about a slave ring. Unfortunately as I was sneaking away unnoticed, one of them noticed me. I am good enough that I was still able to get away, but they now knew who I was and I knew they would come after me and my kids. Probably be glad to come after my kids since they would think they were 'prime merchandise' or something. The only thing I could do was get as much space between us and them, so we left on the first flight I could find. I haven't told them about this though because I didn't want to worry them. They would no doubt want to go defeat the slavers, but slavers never fight fair." Genma thought that he had covered everything with that speech.

"Oh my, you have had quite a life haven't you. I am almost sorry to ask this, but my daughter is involved in something dangerous, I just know it and your kids are too. I was wondering if you knew anything about it. My daughter isn't talking to me and I am so worried." Mrs. Aino looked about ready to cry out of worry.

Genma thought about Makoto coming back beat up saying she had fought a monster of some sort and made his decision on what to say. "Aino-san I don't know what they are up to, but I know that my kids follow the Martial Artist Code so they will protect your daughter. They are strong and great fighters, but they are still kids themselves and need someone to take care of them. I can't do that right now because of my injuries , so if you can do that for me then I am sure that things will be alright. Once I'm better I will help find out what is going on." That should make sure they had a place to stay and then once I'm better... even as Genma thought this he knew what he had just told Mrs. Aino was true.

xxxxxx

I hope things are going better for you guys then it is for me. As Ryouga no doubt told you, I had been investigating the group of slave traders that seemed to be operating around this area. Well I found out more about them then I wanted to, things like how they caught their victims, what they do with them afterwards and who was running it. You know what it is the last one that hurts the most.

I got jumped by a group of them, didn't even get a chance to fight back. I woke up in a cage with some others. I got a chance to fight back when they made us get out to show off the new 'merchandise' to their boss. I lost badly. If it wasn't for something that I wish wasn't true then I would be dead now.

The thing I wish wasn't true and would do anything I could to change yet I can't deny the truth of is that my father was their boss. He was the leader of the slave ring. So he saw to it that I woke up in my bed at home rather than in the afterlife.

Soon after I woke up my mother came in and tried to convince me that father's involvement in the slave trade was a good thing because, among other things, it brought in much money for the clan and that was important then the fact that I had just gotten beaten up and junk like that. If the good of many outweighs the good of one like she said then it is the victims of the slave trade that should be sided with. I think I remember yelling something like that at her, but I might have just thought it real loud.

After she left I knew what I had to do. I used that chi technique you tried to show me, yes I got it to work finally, to get my body moving. I went down to my father's study and grabbed some papers regarding the slave ring and took them to the nearest police station.. Then I collapsed, of course, kinda glad it kicked in then, so I didn't have to answer any questions right then.

Later one of the detectives, Itsuyu, asked me some questions, but he was nice about it. He said that they will try to keep me from being caught up in the media circus things will dissolve into, not in so many words of course. Seems like a descent guy for a cop.

Haruka Tenoh

"Man, ya weren't kidding about things not going well. I'm gonna write her back." said Makoto as she handed the letter to Ranma.

After Ranma looked over the letter he declared that he was going to beat Pops up.

"And why is that young man?" everyone turned to see that Mrs Aino was home "Your father is in the hospital right now and you are talking about beating him up."

"No I didn't mean it like that," Ranma waved his hands wildly in front of his face, "It's just we weren't there to help a friend 'cause he decided to hightail it out of the country. Ya see Haruka ended up fighting a whole ring of slave traders alone. We shoulda been there to help her."

So Saotome san was telling the truth after all thought Mrs. Aino. She then looked at the state of Ranma and Makoto's cloths, which were hardly more then rags and he is right about them needing to be taken care of too,

"Come on I am going to take the two of you shopping. Your clothes are a disgrace."

Everyone thought that the chance in topic was very weird, but went along with it. Neither Tomas nor Ryouga had a good reason to come along so Mrs Aino didn't let them.

Ranma didn't have much trouble with clothes shopping interestingly enough, since Mamai didn't know much about boys clothes. He was able to just grab some shirts and pants. Makoto on the other hand had to put up with all of these well meaning suggestions.

Mrs Aino held up a skirt.

"Can't kick in something like that."

A blouse.

"Too frilly"

another blouse

"Too pink"

In the end Makoto ended up with clothes that were more feminine then she was used to, but she could still stand to wear. She would have been happy to stop there, but no Mrs. Aino insted that they go get new undergarments too, which was even more embarrassing. Who knew that they had a different system for determining bra sizes in England then in Japan, Makoto until now and she would have preferred not to have found that out.

As they were leaving Vitoria's Secret, Mrs. Aino noticed a poster stapled up on a telephone pole. It said "Missing Cat, white with a crescent shaped bald spot on this forehead, please call 555-5451 if you have any information. She thought that the description seemed to fit Artemis quite well, so she wrote down the number. She hoped it wasn't Artemis though, Minako would be so unhappy if it was.

xxxxxxx

Daubite turned to his lieutenant "Are the plans to find Sailor V progressing well?"

"Yes sir, I have noticed that there is always a white cat around when Sailor V is seen, so we have put up lost cat sign all around London. Due to this we now have a general neighborhood she lives in. We should know even more in a week or so."

"Good it is nice to know that some of my subordinates are competent."

xxxxxxxx

Minako was so glad that school was almost over. At least in a few days Ranma and Makoto would be sharing this with her. For some reason, since yesterday, her mother had undertaken the project of being a parent for them and so she was getting them enrolled here. Ranma was sure his father had somehow coned her into it, but Minako wasn't so sure her mother did take on 'projects' sometimes.

The bell rang and all the students ran out of the classroom door. The ones who chose to exit the school by the front doors, like Minako, got the sight of the Assistant Principal yelling at a red haired young man about their age.

"...and furthermore I won't let any lecherous young men interrupt my student's studies."

"Sir I assure you I intend to act with the principles of chivalry utmost in my mind."

Tomas's face was quite red by now, especially since a little bit of what this man had said was true. His reasons for being here were not entirely business.

Minako decided she had better get Tomas out of this mess.

"Come on, we have plenty of more lecherous boys going here, besides school is over so you don't have to worry about anyone interrupting our studies anymore now do you?"

While the Assistant Principal stood red faced and incoherent with rage, Minako grabbed Tomas and hightailed it out of there.

"Um I figured that we should look around to see if we can find any evidence of Dark Agency..."

"Is that the only reason?" Minako asked as she started to tear up.

"Um no, I mean I like you really. I think you are a great person and I would like to know you better. Um would you like to accompany me to the park?"

"That sounds great."

When they reached the park, Minako turned to Tomas curiously and asked, "Why do you have these slits in the back of your shirt?"

"Um," Tomas looked around for a excuse to avoid telling her why the slits were practical for him. "There seems to be something going on over there, a concert maybe. Should we go check it out?"

"That sounds great." Minako said as she glomped on to Tomas's arm hard enough to throw him off balance for a second. "Cool it's the debut concert for the Dark Guys. They're suppose to be one of the hottest new bands! Guess we got lucky."

If Tomas hadn't had a very potent distraction in the form of the blond haired girl hanging on his arm, then he might have noticed the odd magic patterns and been taken less by surprise when the jaws of the trap were closed. This trap though was just for normal people not Bards or Sailor Senshi, so it had about the same effect as catching a tiger in a bird trap.

While Tomas played on his lute, braeking the spells on the tent and letting people escape, Minako ducked around the corner to transform. Both of the Dark Guys transformed into their true forms of, not to put too fine a point on it, monsters with blades for hands. They were a site to terrorize most humans, but Tomas was only half human and he had seen much scarier sites then them before he was ten.

"Mind control and draining of other beings of energy is illegal under the covenant. Prepare to die for your crimes."

With that statement, what was there left to do, but fight. The Dark guys moved apart to do a flanking maneuver. This would have been a good idea if Tomas had been alone, but he wasn't.

"Crescent Beam" One of the Dark Guys no longer existed.

While the other one was distracted by this, Tomas punched his hand, err, claws through the center of it's chest. That was the end of the Dark Guys, but only the start of Tomas's trouble for Minako saw his arm change and by the time he had turned around she was backing away from him.

"I guess I was wrong to trust you wasn't I? Were you just trying to get close to me so you could kill me?"

"I would never do such as that. I am a Bard. I am charged with upholding the Covenant and I will fulfill that duty!"

"And what is the Covenant anyway and what are you?"

"I'm a Gods-be-damned half breed that's what I am! Everyone knows they're cursed, everyone but Lady Titania that is. Maybe they're right. After all I killed my mother as she gave birth to me."

Now, there is no way Minako was going to let someone say some thing like that last line and not try to help them, especially if that person is a hot guy. Besides he obviously wasn't a bad guy after all. Minako knew he couldn't have been one.

"I'm sorry," Minako looked at Tomas, "That was a stupid thing for me to say, I'm always messing words up."

Sincere apologies are great healers. They can calm someone right down, especially if the person is not used to receiving them. Not many people would apologize to a half breed like Tomas.

"It's alright, I should have told you about this earlier. I did have a perfect chance and everything."

"So whose Titania anyway? And you'd better explain what this Covenant thing is."

"Lady Titania is the one who raised me. She takes in many fosterlings and I was one of them. As for the Covenant..."

xxxxxxxx

At about the same time Ranma was visiting his father in the hospital.

"So Boy have you been studying those scroll I gave you?"

"Yes, Pops what did ya tell Aino-san? Ya better not be running one of ya cons with her. I owe a debt and if ya mess things up so I can't pay it then I'll... I'll..." actually Ranma didn't know what he would do, but he knew he would do something.

Genma was very offended by this as only a criminal who didn't commit that particular crime yet could be. "Don't disrespect your elders, boy. The only thing I told her was that you would protect her daughter, which it sounds like you are doing. And how is it you owe her a debt? Is my dishonorable son that much of a wimp that he needs a ordinary girl to help him?"

"Minako is not an ordinary girl, pops. She..."

Ranma was interrupted by an annoyed Artemis, Arrg, why, why did this happen again?

Why'd what happen again? Ranma thought at Artemis.

I turned into a human again and I was having a nice catnap too.

Better hope Aino-san doesn't come in. Her finding a naked man in her daughter's bed wouldn't be good

Ah hell Artemis could well imagine her chasing after him with a cleaver, and she would ground Minako for life when she got home from school. You have to get back here quick thought Artemis with some panic.

Ranma could sense the panic, so he said he would be right there and made his goodbyes to Genma. As he was leaving Ranma couldn't resist one final parting shot.

"Ya know Minako's cat fixed the Neko-Ken."

Then he left and quickly roof-hopped back to the Aino household. As soon as he made it back Ranma had been planing to run up the stairs to Artemis, but he was met at the door by Mrs, Aino who asked how his visit with his father went.

Ranma shrugged. "Ended up fighting with Pops the whole time."

As Ranma was being lectured at by Mrs. Aino, Artemis came down in his cat form, which made him both relax - Artemis wasn't going to get killed or anything, and angry - he didn't seem to be having any trouble changing form now.

After a little while Ranma was able to get away from Mrs. Aino. Sheesh! He got enough lectures on respecting his elders from his Pop and he didn't know what half the other stuff she said meant. He then found Artemis waiting for him in another room.

"Ya turned back." he said half in accusation.

By this time Artemis had had a chance to think. "Yes, do you notice I only seem to have these involuntary changes when you get to far away and then I can't seem to change back until you get back in range?"

"Oh, it have something ta do with how ya got rid of the Neko ken."

"Most likely, it's the only thing I can think of that would cause this. If I just knew what exactly what the Neko ken was."

"We could try and beat the info outta Pops, but I bet ya he doesn't remember and even if he still had the scroll he got it from then it got destroyed by that big cat." That was not Ranma's favorite thing to remember, what he could remember of it that is."Only scroll that didn't was the one Pops gave me and Makoto ta study, had it tucked into my gi."

xxxxxxxx

Flourite got over her shock of how fast the Dark Guys had been defeated quickly. After all when one knows they have to run for their life, they don't waste time on nonessential. There was one problem though - - where to run to. The police would be the best she decided after a moment. They may not be able to protect her themselves, but she knew where they were. Truthfully, even if she knew where to find Sailor V, going to her directly would no doubt make her suspect a trap. No best to go to the police with her information then the police would contact Sailor V. By the time the sun rose over the city she was at a police station talking to the chief Inspector.

Elsewhere, the Dark Agency plotted the downfall of Sailor V. They now knew where she lived.

Thanks go to DreamSong for prereading. Thanks to Talonhunter, goku90504 an isouimani for reviewing and a special thanks to Chris Shadow Moon for reviewing twice in a row.

School is starting up again. This means I'll have less time for writing, especially since I am having to take Intro to Anatomy & Physiology again. So updates will be slower. I am sorry about this but RL comes first.


	4. Chapter 4

Curses Aren't The Only Change

Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I think that you are smart enough to figure out how much of this I own.

"Hey, Katarina Captain Forrest wants to see you."

"Did he say why?" asked Katarina looking up from the paperwork covering her desk. The other officer just shook his head "I better go see then."

When Katarina entered the chief's office, the first thing he asked her was if she could get in contact with the guy from Special Ops.

Katarina thought about it. Tomas did say he was going to be working with Minako.

"I should be able to, why?"

"We had someone come to us this morning saying that she had information on the Dark Agency and she would give it to us in exchange for protection. We don't have the resources to do so," said the chief of Police, "Besides magical crimes are out of our jurisdiction. We have, of course, called their hot line, but they took awhile to respond last time. So I want you to contact their officer that is here now."

*Now lets see, Minako should be out of school by now and she should know how to get in contact with Tomas,* thought Katarina as she left the station and got in her car.

It was only a short drive and soon Katarina standing in front of Aino's door, but before she could ring the doorbell she heard voices in the backyard.

"Oh no! There is no way!"

*That was Minako, wonder what...*

"Come on ya have to learn ta fight." said a guy's voice, probably Ranma''s.

"I do to know how to fight. In case you forgot, you guys came asking me for help not that long ago."

A female voice replied, "Ya, 'cause you know magic. That don't mean failing around and hoping ta hit something is fighting."

*I had better help Minako out here. Need to interrupt anyway* thought Katarina as she turned the corner into the backyard, avoided that punch that Minako had somehow managed to dodge and told them the news. Fortunately, Tomas was already there so they didn't have to go looking for him before heading to the police station.

xxxxxxxx

As they drew near to the police station, they heard the sounds of gun fire and bodies hitting the wall. Minako paused to transform, while Ranma and Makoto broke into a run and Tomas, well, he kinda did both; he put his glamourie on while he was running. By the time that Sailor V made it to the scene, the fight was just about over. She arrived to see Ranma finishing off the youma with some kind of vacuum blades.

"Cool! You finally got that chi attack you have been working on to work."

"Yep! Pretty good, huh?"

Captain Forrest didn't know what he was expecting the Special Ops agent to look like, but he sure wasn't expecting him to look so young or Asian. What was with his black hair tied back in a pigtail? He looked more like one of those kids that give the truant officers so much trouble, rather than an officer.

"Captain," said Katarina off to his side, "This is Tomas Drake, the special Ops agent you wished to see."

As the captain turned to look at them, Tomas was glad that the glamorie he was wearing made him look older. They shook hands and Captain Forest asked who the kid that defeated that thing was.

"He's a friend who is faster on his feet then I am."

"Ah well come inside and meet this Flourite."

The inside of the police station looked just like one would expect. The front room had one raised desk in it, one would guess for the officer on front desk duty, but there was no one there now. They then when though a door into another room full of desks that had an open door to an office.

"Let me take over Tomas." said a voice from behind them

Tomas was the first to react, saying, "Ah, hello Puck. I'm glad you are here. You missed all the action earlier."

"I felt the traces of that when I arrived "

These were not circumstances anyone of Avalon had ever dealt with before . Their contact with police usually consisted of telling them to stay away and occasionally getting information from them. The few times that someone had defected. They had come directly to the Court of Avalon and formally switched their alliance.

These facts didn't faze Puck at all. This was what he was best at, after all. He knew the best way like he knew what he was doing was to demand stuff.

"I will need the use of one of your interrogation rooms."

"Right Katerina accompany them to Interrogation Room number two." Captain Forrest said, "Remember we haven't given them custody of her yet."

"Dear Captain, you hardly need to worry about my conduct with one who wishes to change their alliance."

"just get to the interrogation room and ask your questions. I've got work to do cleaning up this mess."

The police Captain stomped off and Katarina took them to a simple room and started up the recording equipment.

"Why are you bothering with that?"

"All conversations here are recorded as a matter of public record." replied Katarina.

Puck just shrugged and turned to Flourite, "You must know something important for them to send someone after you so fast."

Flourite said with a tough of pride, "I was one of Daunite's direct subordinates."

"Daunite... he used to be Jedite's seneschal didn't he?" said Artemis remembering what he had learned from his days as an adviser of Queen Serenity's court.

"Back then maybe, now he is the head of the Dark Agency."

Puck got things back on topic by asking, "So why did you decide to defect? And why come to the normal police?"

Puck looked as inscrutable as he could when he said this, which was pretty inscrutable. After all he was a trickster god and they are the best at that kind of thing. He knew that this was the most important question he would be asking, for it would tell her intent, depending on if she lied or not. Puck would know if she was lying due to the one great advantage he had over the men in the spy movies he so liked to watch, the Truth Song. He asked Tomas to play that song,

As Puck asked his questions, Katerina was amazed at how amiably things proceeded. There were no threats on Pucks part of what would happen if Flourite was lying, and Flourite didn't make any demands about what she was going to get for the information. Frankly, it looked more like a business deal then anything else. After the first few questions, Puck told her what they could offer and they got down to such information as where the Dark Agency was located, what their plans were and who and what they had working for them.

"Do we have somewhere on this plane that we can confer quietly?" asked Puck when he was done with his questions for Flourite.

"This room isn't good enough for you?" asked Katarina.

"The captain's hospitality is not something I wish to impose upon more then I have to. Methinks I have some of that paperwork that you you mortals so enjoy creating to take care of right now."

"We can meet at my place." Minako blurted out. "My parents won't be home until later this evening."

"Good. Let us meet there in an hour for a war council."

xxxxxxxx

"Why is this boy here?" asked Captain Denradi of the Avalon Royal guard when he showed up with Robin Goodfellow for a war council with their allies, the Sailor Senshi concerning the destruction of their common enemy, the Dark Agency. "He has no magic and so will not be able to withstand the riggers of the war we are about to embark on."

"I can fight better then a jerk like you!" yelled the pigtailed boy.

"I am a knight in Lord Oberon's service. What could you do to me?"

So Ranma was more than happy to show him. A knee to the groin is very helpful when your opponent is not expecting it, along with an elbow to the ribs and a knifehand to the temple. Denradi found this out first hand as he tried to fight Ranma. The fight didn't last long.

"If you two are quite done, can we get started?" said Puck. Despite his words he had enjoyed the fight and would have preferred to just keep watching their antics, but duty called. "Come now inside, I can't do a power point presentation in these environs."

"What is a power point presentation?" asked Denradi.

At the same time, Tomas groaned and asked if he was going to regret getting Puck that laptop last Solstice. Puck just replied that human technology was so much fun as they went inside.

Within a few moments every thing was set up and...

"This is a youma. As you may already know, they are nasty monsters who like to drain humans of energy. It is unknown if or how this would affect the Fay. It is against the covenant though."

Change of slide "They were created as war machines before the period of time known as the Silver Millennium started."

"How do you know that?" asked Artemis.

"Please hold all of your questions until after the presentation is over." Puck said acting like an annoyingly stuck up teacher.

Tomas could see Puck was having fun with his playacting. He wondered which show he had gotten this character from or if he had just made him up. Tomas almost smiled thinking about it, but he made sure it didn't show. After all Puck might "decide" he was thinking about something perverted.

Meanwhile, Puck was still talking. "Anyway they were taken control of by a force called Metallia. After a bit of fighting they were sealed up by the woman who became the first Queen of the Moon Kingdom."

Next slide

"Then during the 14th Queen's rule, Metallia and her youma broke the seal by taking control of a noble from Earth named Beryl. It is not known exactly what happened but Moon Kingdom was destroyed and much devastation was caused here on earth before someone sealed her up again."

Next slide, a picture of London

"That brings us up to modern day. The youma seem to have broken though the seal again, but it is not known if Metallia is in this world again. It would be best to get rid of them as quickly as possible to avoid anything like what happened last time."

Next slide

"Fortunately, we have gotten information on where they are based," Puck pointed at the image on the screen, "Here. There are one hundred youma, fifty super youma and five mages under the command of Daubrite."

Puck brought up a Blueprint of the building and pointed out all the ways to get in or out. Then he brought up the last slide which was a credits page citing Fluorite and Dr. Jones among others as the sources for the presentation.

After Puck's presentation was over they got down to the business of figuring out how the hell to get rid of the Dark Agency.

"Damn it, Old One Eye had to attack at just the wrong time." said Captain Denradi, "We simply don't have the manpower to force our way in."

"Think it was planed that way?" asked Ranma

Puck replied to this, "Nay the only part of the Covenant that Odin would break would be the negotiation truce and then only if someone suggested that he would break the Covenant."

"What ya mean?"

"If someone asked him to do something like that, then he would kill them even if the Covenant says he shouldn't."

Ranma didn't look like he believed this. In his mind he could not see why someone wouldn't break this Covenant thing, after all Pops broke the law all the time.

"Ranma," said Minako "You follow your Martial arts Code, right?'

"Yeah, so?"

"The Covenant is the same thing. It's just more complicated."

Oh, ok" said Ranma before he returned to the original topic of conversation. "If we can't force our way in, then force them to come out."

"And how would we do that?"

"Don't know, plant smoke bombs in the place or something."

Puck smiled tricks were his specialty. "That will be my job. Prepare your attack for it shall be at the Witching Hour that this is ended." He stood up, bowed and then disappeared, leaving behind a ring of mushrooms.

Denradi got up. I'll gather a squad to help you" He then walked into the fairy ring and also disappeared.

"Um, when's the Witching Hour anyway?" Minako asked Tomas after a moment.

"Midnight,"

After they left Artemis brought up the subject of magic.

"You know, Ranma, you might actually have some magic due to, um, the way I got rid of the Neko ken."

"Why would I wanta learn something useless like that? All I need to know is martial arts."

"Ranma, not learning how to control your magic can be disastrous."

"Then why ain't ya bugging Makoto about it? Everyone seems to know she has some strong magic."

"Because she already had training in her last life, even if she doesn't remember it right now. Also the henshin sticks were among other things made to help prevent that sort of thing from happening."

"Then ya shoulda thought of that sooner."

"So the great Ranma Saotome is turning down training. Well, maybe you are not up to it."

"Hey there ain't any training I can't do."

"Good then let's start." Artemis said adopting a teaching tone.

This was the start of a very frustrating hour for the both of them. Ranma couldn't seem to do any spell right. After the light spell that he tried to do turned into a wind spell, Tomas suggested that Artemis find a better way to train Ranma.

"And do you have any ideas?" Artemis replied his tail bristling.

Tomas pretended that Artemis was asking the question seriously instead of just being sarcastic.

"You are trying to teach magic as it was used during the Silver Millennium by the Moon Kingdom right? I'm asking because the records I have read and the people who I have talked to that were alive back then have all said that the people of the Moon Kingdom used a series of constructions to tap into a different magical source."

*Order and chaos that's what the source... Oh of course, can't tap into that now, could be dangerous* thought Artemis then he said politely "You know you're right. Do you have any ideas for teaching him?"

"Me teach, I wouldn't know where to start, besides only masters are suppose to teach, not journeymen."

Artemis had to laugh at the look on Tomas' face. He just looked so young and flustered.

"Sorry if you can't teach, then can you at least tell me how things work? My knowledge is a bit out of date it seems."

"I can try. Magic revolves around the four elements." said Tomas.

"There are five elements, not four." interrupted Ranma.

"How could you get five. Some might argue that there are six, but five there is no way, light and dark are not the same thing."

"Of course there are five elements, fire, wind, metal, water and earth." said Ranma. It was the basis of some schools of martial arts after all.

"No they are Earth, wind, water and fire." Tomas had learned this when he was only four years old.

The argument over what the elements really were lasted for the rest of the afternoon, despite Artemis trying to get things back on track. This discussion finally was ended by the parents coming home, including Genma, who Minako's parents had just picked up at the hospital. Since he was there, Tomas was invited to stay for dinner.

Dinner turned out to be a bit awkward for Tomas. Mrs. Aino had cooked a Japanese meal and where she had given him normal silverware, everyone else was using chopsticks. Then to make things worse Mr. Aino kept glaring at him and asking him embarrassing questions.

Finally Minako had enough of her father pestering Tomas. "Dad stop tormenting my boyfriend!"

"Boyfriend! What do you have to say for yourself young man?" Mr. Aino said turning to Tomas.

"Um, I respectfully ask permission to court your daughter, sir."

This confused then surprised Mr. Aino. Confused because Tomas's word choice of courting was rather old fashioned, it was used during the middle ages after all, but he thought it meant something like date, which lead to his surprise. Teenage boys usually don't ask permission. In the end he gave Tomas permission but reminded him that they would be leaving in a few months.

xxxxxxxx

"Ranma is a good fighter, sire, but I am still worried that he will be in great danger with out magic to help them."

"Then needs be that we help such a brave soul survive." Oberon gestured, "Walk with me so we might find some weapons for our brave warriors."

They went down the to the Royal Armory. Once there, Oberon opened a case near the front of the armory..

"For the boy this, I think." Oberon said as he took down a sword from the wall, "Hm, I will need to make a new scabbard for it, the old one was lost ages ago."

Denradi was frankly aghast at this.

"You want to give that rude boy Excalibur?"

"Time has reached a nexus point and a new Age of Heroes is about to begin. So Excalibur must go out, but if I were to put it in the hands of one of this land then it would but sow confusion and dissent."

xxxxxxxx

Since Minako could not exactly tell her parents "I have to go save the world now," she followed Makoto's lead and climbed out the window. She was glad that after this, things would be over and she could go back to being a normal teenager. Once they climbed out the window, Minako stopped and turned around.

"Something wrong?"

"Just had a bad feeling, that's all."

"We better get going, so we ain't late."

"Right, we should transform first." said Minako happily. She couldn't wait to see what Makoto looked like as Sailor Jupiter.

"Uh yeah," Makoto on the other hand had been hoping Minako would forget about that, "But not here. Transforming in front of your house seems kinda stupid."

"um, yeah you're right," To avoid actuations that she had never thought about that she pointed out a convenient alleyway.

The alleyway was deserted and only a little grimy, so Ranma guarded the front of it while Minako and Makoto said their activation phases. When Makoto said the words "Jupiter Power! Make Up" she felt this power unfolding inside of her and enveloping her in a wave of magic. When the wave receded, she opened her eyes and found herself standing in the same place she was before, but now she was clad in a ridiculously short skirt, a leotard thingy, gloves and high heeled boots. Too make things worse the getup had two large pink bows. What kind of fighting uniform had pink bows on it for crying out loud?

"Was the guy who designed these things a spy for the negaverse or whatever we're fighting?"

Artemis didn't feel like explaining the whole reason that the Senshi uniforms looked like that so he just said "No, now we had better get going."

When they arrived at the staging site, Denradi handed Ranma a blanket wrapped bundle.

You can have this provided that you promise to throw it the water when you are dieing."

"Um, sure." Ranma said rolling his eyes as he unwrapped the bundle. Inside was a well worn European sword with the words 'take me up' engraved on one side and 'cast me away' on the other side. "A sword. What am I suppose ta do with it?" said Ranma in tones of it's a dead fish.

"You use it to fight with," said Denradi, "Surely you know how to use one."

"Of course, Pop took us to train under a sword master so we would know how ta defeat idiot weapon users."

"Your fists are not going to be of much use against something with poison skin. If you want to get your self killed do it when someone else is commanding!"

"In a few minutes Puck will have done his job and these 'youma' will come flooding out, so be ready."

Denradi turned and left.

xxxxxxxxx

At Stonehenge, Puck prepared for the magic he was about to do. The greater part of it was an ancient spell linked to this circle of stones. It was an old magic, older then Puck, and even older then Lady Titania.

The lesser part of the magic would be a simple fear spell. After he used the power of Stonehenge to draw Daubite there to fight, he would use the cannel it opened to send the fear spell down. That fear spell would make every one in the Dark Agency to be too scared to stay in the building. So they would run out right into the arms of the forces waiting to kill them.

Puck pictured the form of the spells in his mind then punched power into them. The spells drank in the power and spun off to do their work. In a moment, Daubite had appeared before him and the fear spell took hold as he left the Dark Agency.

"Only one of us will leave this circle of stones alive." said Puck.

Puck was speaking the truth for that was both the power and the price of the primal magic of Stonehenge. They could summon anyone to them, but the circle would only let one of them leave and only after the other was dead.

xxxxxxxxx

They were standing, waiting for the youma to come at them and Minako was very nervous. She had never been part of a premeditated plan to defeat the bad guys before. Anytime she had fought before, she hadn't had to wait for the bad guys to get here. When she looked around no one else seemed nervous, Makoto was looking off in the direction the youma would be coming from, Ranma was griping the handle of the sword he'd been given, and as for Tomas, he was off at a different part of this mess doing something or other.

All of the sudden, things got much more interesting. There was a great scream from the Agency HQ and all those youma came boiling out of it.

"Stand firm, men," yelled the sergeant of the first battalion, "Archers to the front."

xxxxxxxx

The battle was going well, but there was something odd. The enemies forces were not as great as reported. Now it might just be because their information about the enemy numbers was inaccurate, but best make sure. Denradi turned to the people next to him.

"Scry around the edged of the battlefield. See if any of these youma are trying a flanking maneuver."

The one of the mages next to him nodded and looked into his crystal ball.

"There are signs that a group of youma passed by recently, but that was before the battle started and they didn't hang around."

Denradi wondered for a moment where that group of youma were heading, but then he returned his focus to the battle. There was nothing he could do, but hope that group didn't cause too much destruction, for he didn't have the men to send after them.

xxxxxxx

Soon the youma were all taken care of.

"It used to be that we would tear down the buildings of someone who had broken the Covenant until not one stone was still standing and sow the soil with salt." said Denradi thinking of how things were just after he had become a knight. In many ways he was glad that those days were over. Many dark deeds had been done back then.

"That's a stupid waste of time." said Ranma.

On the other hand, thought Denradi, at least people had proper respect back then.

"Don't worry you won't have to do any work." he told Ranma harshly.

"I could if I wanted to." Maybe, Ranma added mentally.

Puck had just arrived back from Stonehenge in time to hear this little exchange. He had been planning to make a big dramatic entrance, but the thought of the – good natured – fun he could have if Ranma kept acting this way he burst out laughing.

"I see your fight has met with success." said Denradi careful not asking what Puck was laughing about.

"The great idiot forgot to watch out for gopher holes." replied Puck in an imitation southern drawl.

"You know that might be because there aren't any gophers in England." Tomas told Puck before turning to Minako. "I'm, um, glad to see that you are alright, Minako." *What to say, what to say?* "Would you consent to let me accompany you home?"

xxxxxx

Finally, the bad guys had been defeated and she could do normal teenage things again, like going out on dates with her cute boyfriend and...and...

When they made it back to the Aino house, the front door was swinging open on one hinge. Inside was a bloody mess where no living soul remained. The youma bodies were already rotting, but the three human bodies were still recognizable, whether this was a good thing or not is uncertain.

Minako arrived a few moments before the others and they found her crying over the body of her mother. She had their blood on her cloths. Her transformation had been dropped and her face was tear stained.

"Minako…" called out Tomas, but before he could continue, everyone heard a police car pull up and two policemen come up the walk

"What's going on here?" yelled one of the cops as he came up.

Minako wasn't thinking very clearly at the moment, for obvious reasons, and she thought the cop was accusing Sailor V, her, of killing her parents. It was no wonder that he would think that After all, she did have blood all over her. The fact that she was no longer transformed and few people would think a 15 year old girl was a killer completely slipped her mind. "It wasn't my fault," she choked out as she ran off.

"Wait we…" called out the other cop but he was unable to catch her before she disappeared. "Smooth move idiot," the cop said to his partner as they went back to the crime scene. The monsters had by now rotted away to bones, so were bagged as evidence.

The next day, the story was on the front page of the newspaper. They identified two of the bodies as Mr. and Mrs. Aino, the owners of the house. The third body was identified to be that of Genma Saotome. The article further said that when someone was sent over to the residence of Genma it was found to be completely empty. There was no sign of Genma's son or adopted daughter. The police have no clue as to the whereabouts of the missing teenagers or what exactly happened that night.

Thanks go to my prereaders.


	5. Chapter 5

Curses Aren't The Only Change

Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I think that you are smart enough to figure out how much of this I own.

September 1

Hey Haruka,

There have been a lot of things going on. First we find out where the bad guys lair is and with the help of some friends of Tomas we took it out. Then when we get back to Minako's house we find Genma and Minako's parents dead, killed by the very tings we had been fighting. At least Genma died a Martial Artist. And then we got chased by cops. Puck got us out of that by pulling us Underhill.

Then some idiots there decided to put me and Minako of trial, because they confused us for some people who lived during the silver Millennium. Imagine them thinking I was a princess. Anyway they said the Moon Kingdom tried to take over Earth by getting the Moon Princess, Selene, married to a Prince of Earth named Endymion instead of his finance Beryl, but that's not what happened. According to Artemis the two, Selene and Endymion I mean, were life-bonded and must be married according to long standing Holy Tradition. This came before all other concerns even continuing the Royal line of one of the planets.

Actually Artemis told us more then that all about how the princess' of Neptune and Uranus were allowed to be together because of this whole life-bond thing despite that fact that since Neptune's twin had been sealed up for some crime or another there wouldn't be a next generation of Neptune royalty. Anyway to get back to what I was saying earlier, Beryl ended up tapping into some energy force called Metallia that either drove her crazy or possessed her and attacked the Moon Kingdom. destroyed it and a large part of the Earth's power structure which caused much of civilization to collapse. Beats me why they would blame me for this.

Tomas got us out of this by pointing out that you couldn't try someone for something they did in a past life. He brought up the fact that Ceridwin didn't try and kill Taliesin despite what he had done in his past life as Gwion Bach. Oh and Ranma got a cool suit of armor that he can summon out of a pendent.

Makoto

September 10

Dear Makoto,

It's great to hear from you . After hearing that Genma was dead and you guys were missing and presumed dead in the newspaper I was worried. Due to all the publicity surrounding it and the fact that Genma had died defending two people, money was put up for his funeral. I went because, I felt I should go. It was an odd funeral. There were a few people who came for the normal reason, to say a final goodbye to their friend. Then there were those, like me I suppose, who were there because Genma ended up being better then we thought and then there were the people who came to gloat.

After the funeral we beat up the people in the last group for disrespecting the dead, then somehow ended at a bar making toasts to Genma and talking about what we remember about him, even though Soun Tendo was the only one who had actually been friends with him, old training partner I think. He was blubbering about the fact that he was the only master of Anything Goes left and that he had to find a way to continue the school himself now. We got to talking and he offered to teach me his school, I don't think he realized I was a girl at the time judging from how he reacted later.

The next day I went to the Tendo Dojo to continue the conversation. Man does Soun's daughter have a neat chi technique; she can manifest a giant mallet. I found out about this when she hit me with it yelling something about perverted boys. After I got out of the Koi pond I told her I was not a boy and would be glad to prove it. She looked very aghast for a moment then stomped off. I don't know what her problem was I was just acting like I normally do.

Haruka

September 20

Hey Haruka,

You acting like you normally do was the problem, I bet. It's a good thing that Ryouga taught me French, because we're in France right now. After all that junk Underhill was over, Titania pulled a few strings to get us there instead of back to England, don't want to deal with the cops there. Anyway she didn't have much cash, lots of gold, but no usable money, Just how stupid is that? At least she realized that and just gave us supplies. Good ones too, but after a while the food did run out and we had to see about raising some money for food. Me and Ranma were able to find some work unloading a truck. Tomas and Minako went to go sing at a street corner or something, Tomas called it busking.

You know it is annoying that they ended up making more money then us and were able to find us a better job completely by accident. It seems that when Minako handed this scroll back to this archaeologist guy she showed that she knew the language of the Silver Millennium. He caught up with us later that night wanting to find out how the hell Minako was able to read something in a dead language that is really hard to translate. Turns out that he's researching the Silver Millennium. Anyway he hired us to help with his research. He happens to be going East so we won't have to walk the whole way back home.

Makoto

September 30

Dear Makoto,

I'm glad you are able to use the language lessons for something besides an excuse for some quality time with your boyfriend. Not much has been happening around here, well aside from 'someone's' attempt at sending me to a boarding school without even bothering to tell me in person. Lets just say that didn't work out the way she wanted it to. It only took me a week to get expelled. The end result is that I am going to a new school now. I have only been there for a little while, but I seem to have gotten quite the reputation. There is one girl at school with hair the color of the seas, it wonder what she thinks of my reputation.

Soun sensei is having Akane and I go over the basic kata for Anything Goes. It is a good thing that I picked up some stuff from the two of you , but it is still hard to keep up sometimes. Speaking of Akane, boy does she have a temper. I found out why though, seems that she has to fight most of the male population of her school every morning because they think that they will get a date with her if they do beat her. They are crazy.

Haruka

October 10

Hey Haruka,

Found out why the Senshi have to transform into a stupid outfit to use magic attacks. Doctor Jones translated some old scrolls with our help. One of them told about how the Moon Kingdom was founded. Apparently there was a big war between the different planets, there were people on all of them back then. Things got bad, I better just give you the translation, "The only research that was done was new ways to kill the enemy whether it was a new distractive spell or the making of super soldiers called youma. In the end the rage, death and magic on the battlefield caused the monster Metallia to be born. It hated those who had created it. It destroyed their armies, took control of the youma and then moved in to kill them and destroy any evidence they had ever existed." It goes on to say that a healer sealed Metallia up with something called the Ginzuishou. They made her the High Queen or something and made it so that they and all of their kids and grandkids and so on could only use attack magic when they transformed into a silly costume.

It was actually the other scroll that Doctor Jones was more interested in. It's about the Holy Grail and how it will appear if the three talismans are brought together. He said he had found it once before and now was looking for it again so it could reverse what it had done to him. Living a long time isn't any fun it seems.

Makoto

October 20

Dear Makoto,

My class is on a school trip to Mount Kurama right now, apparently the teachers thought we needed to get out of the city for a while, supposedly to see the Kurama Fire Festival. Since Sojobo had said I was welcome to come visit him after we accidentally followed Ryouga there that one time. I had some trouble finding the place at first, but I found it in the end.

Sojobo was pleased about how my training was going and offered to teach me the way of the sword. Once I accepted he said that he hadn't taught a student for a while, Minamoto no Yoshitsune was the last one, but he would teach me because he could see that I had a sword in my soul and I could now learn what he was teaching.

After I disappeared all day for a couple of days people did notice and one of teachers tried following me. More then tried actually, she was able to succeed at it. She stumbled right in on my morning sparing session. Once she got over her surprise at seeing tengu, then she started talking to Sojobo sensei about the fact that I needed to be educated in more then just the sword. Amazingly, she was actually able to make him understand that things had changed since samurai times.

Haruka

October 25

Hey Haruka,

Man did it surprise me when Ryouga turned into a Phoenix when he got splashed with cold water. He was so worried that I wouldn't like him now that he had a curse like that. I had to convince him that wasn't true. He said he picked up the curse in Pakistan, but for all we know it could have been in China.

We are traveling with the Roma right now, you might know them as gypsies. Doctor Jones wants to talk to some people who don't like to talk to strangers. So the gypsies are taking us there in exchange for him teaching their kids during the trip. Doctor Jones was able to talk them into teaching us some about magic, mostly how to identify and fight possessions. Tomas was able to show them some different ways to do that kinda stuff, no one seemed surprised. That should be useful for fighting Metallia, if it is still around.

Makoto

October 30

Dear Makoto,

Ryouga's changing surprised me too.

The Kurama Fire Festival was very interesting. It started in 940 when the Emperor relocated the Yuki shrine to Kurama to appease the northern kami. It worked so well that they decided to hold a ceremony every year and this custom continues to this day. Many people from all over Japan go to this festival every year.

At six in the evening the festival started with a cry of "Shinji ni mairasshare." Then all the citizens kindled torches and marched up the main thoroughfare with the youngest going first. The bearers chanted sai-rei, sai-ryo and there were Taiko drummers playing. By eight most people had gathered at the stone steps leading up to the temple. As the shimenawa was cut, a tengu appeared and gave me a medallion. Most people thought it was just part of the show, but the priests were surprised. They sent the portable shrines to be carried around town for the festival out fast so they could talk to us.

The tengu simply declared that the medallion was his king's gift to his favorite student and it would help me study the Way of the Sword then took off. The head priest insisted on giving me a string of magatama to hang it on, for protection he said. I wasn't able to talk to him anymore before we left the next day.

Haruka

November 5

Hey Haruka,

You know how I said the people we were going to meet didn't much like to talk to outsiders? Well that won't be a problem now. You see the people we are going to meet were werewolves and one of the pups bit Minako. We were walking along the path up to the Manor house where, Tshilaba, one of the Roma was going to introduce us to the Pack leader, when some dogs, well I thought they were dogs at the time, bounded over a hill and crashed into us. Next thing we know Minako was unconscious on the ground and the youngest pup looked like he was about to cry. Then one of them ran off to the manor house and came back with the Pack Leader.

Minako was sick for about a week, which they said was not normal. Figured out why it happened after we found out that part of the spell on the werewolves was an inverted Moon Kingdom spell or something. Apparently some old evil wizard mixed the spell they used to enhance the Lunar Guards with a transformation spell and a couple of other things, guess he wanted a super army to take over the world. Either Sailor Pluto hadn't died when the Moon Kingdom fell or she reincarnated a lot faster because she beat the wizard up and unraveled as much of the spell as she could. We might have to worry about Minako becoming raging beast every full moon, which doesn't happen very often. It would be hard to restrain Minako every month, but if we have to then we will.

Makoto

November 10

Dear Makoto,

Sounds like you guys have been having some trouble, not too much is going on around here. Soun sensei asked me to come along with him on one of his monster hunting trips. He gets most of his income from them, hopefully soon he will be making most of his money from teaching again. Nabiki has been doing some work to get the Dojo running again. Nothing exciting happened on the trip. We have gotten into more trouble by letting Ryouga lead. The only interesting part was when I found something that dispels some kinds of spells like sleep and paralysis. Oh and I asked that girl I mentioned earlier out her name is Michiru, not sure how to tell her about all the supernatural stuff that I have gotten involved in.

Haruka

November 15

Hey Haruka,

We are still at Pack Leader Geref's manor. He is teaching Minako how to deal with being a werewolf as best he can. They are probably both wishing they knew more of each others language. Geref is always asking Tomas to act as a translator. He could ask me but he trust Tomas more, the whole bard thing I guess.

There are other problems with the teaching too since Minako is a Sailor Senshi the two magics interacted oddly, They said Order/Chaos spells do that more then elemental spells. One of the things this means is that Minako doesn't change at the full moon, but at something else, don't know what yet. they said that between the fact that the rage that some werewolves experiences has been decreasing each generation and her Senshi magic Minako doesn't have to worry about falling into a werewolves rage and becoming an insane killing machine.

The mountains here are great for training. That's what me and Ranma have been doing since the Roma left. Good luck with your new girlfriend.

Makoto

November 20

Dear Makoto,

We seem to have an infestation of those youma creatures that you talked about over here. One of them killed Akane and a number of other people. And I must say that this Sailor Moon is a coward and a fraud.

I best start at the beginning. Three days ago, Akane went to the Hikawa shrine to get a good luck charm. She never came back. Soun sensei was so worried that he wasn't able to teach that night. Since we have been working very hard to get some people to come to the Dojo and learn Anything Goes, I ended up trying to fill in for him.

The next day Nabiki and I went to the shrine to see what we could find out. We soon found out that Akane was not the only one who had disappeared, a whole bus full of girls had. Then we found out why as we were leaving a huge blackhole appeared and we saw another bus disappear into it. The strange thing was that Nabiki didn't seem to see it until I pointed it out to her.

Once we got back to the Dojo we did some research and discussed what should be done. I asked Soun sensei if he would allow me the honor taking care of it, since I didn't want him to get himself killed going after those guys. He was happy to do so and insisted I take the Tendo Honor sword with me when I went.

The next day I went to go catch a bus. As I jumped on top of the bus, to avoid notice,there was some disturbance below that served to hide the sounds I made. Once the bus went through the blackhole, several things happened all at once. The first was that, I kid you not, a stewardess got thrown out of the bus I was on. Then the priestess of that temple this was happening at came falling out of another blackhole and was caught by the throat by the bus driver, who turned into a monster that looked much like the youma you had described to me.

As the stewardess was whining that she didn't want to live like this anymore, I jumped down and sliced the youma in half. Then after I am done killing the thing the stewardess turns into Sailor Moon and tries to pretend she wasn't acting like a complete coward until the fighting was over.

Then this guy in a tuxedo, of all things, shows up and helps get all the buses back to the real world. Sailor Moon was too busy going gaga over him to check to see if the people in the buses were alright. The people in two of them weren't. The ones in the bus that disappeared yesterday were so weak that most of them needed to be hospitalized and the people on the first bus, the one Akane was in, everyone was dead. All of their life energy had been drained. It was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do was to go and tell Soun that the best I had been able to do was avenge his daughter.

Haruka

November 25

Hey Haruka,

Man that is tough, don't beat your self up about it to much. Well, we're leaving the werewolves. They have taught Minako what they can. Only one thing left for her to learn about , but she can't learn it until we find out what makes her transform and it's more a matter of willpower anyway. Minako was given a necklace that stores her clothes for when she transforms to a wolf. Artemis asked for one for when he changes from cat to human, it does still happen when he gets to far away from Ranma.

Everyone is ready to get going. We will be heading to Turkey next. Doctor Jones has got a lead on a place to get some more info on the three talisman that lead the way to the Holy Grail.

Makoto

November 30

Dear Makoto,

Sailor Moon doesn't know even the basics of combat. She is likely to get anyone working with her killed from pure stupidity. This was made painfully obvious to me yesterday.

The night before last, the guy who is in charge of the youma, Jedite he said his name was, made his face appear in the sky and proclaimed that unless the Sailor Senshi came to the Haneda Airport tomorrow at 1AM he would burn down Tokyo. The next day I went down to the station to talk to Itsuyu. He was going to be in charge of the policemen guarding the airport that night. I offered to come along to help with any supernatural entities, after talking a while he agreed.

The night was fairly boring up until a little after midnight, there came a a mist that apparently had a sleeping spell in it. We were able to avoid it where I was. Having something that gives you forewarning helps. Fortunately the mist did not stay around for long.

We had to do some sneaking around at first. Jedite had made some simple mud golems in the form of police officers. They were like the ones we ended up fighting after Genma tried to con that magician. We had to find out where Jedite hid the other officers, usually in closets near where they were stationed, wake them up with the thing I picked up on the monster hunt and be careful not to alert anyone to our presence until there were enough of us to take out the golems.

As we were doing this, I noticed that there seemed to be fewer and fewer golems and then there was the sounds of planes moving around. As soon as we had woken enough officers up we, of course, went towards the sounds, which were coming from out on one of the runways. All of the sudden this golden magical Frisbee thing came flying right at me. I dodged, but it still raked across my cheek, an inch higher and it would have taken out my eye.

The magical Frisbee thing turned out to be Sailor Moon's attack. She gave a rather confused explanation of the fight that included that she had thrown it to distract Jedite and then forgot to dispel it. What kind of idiot forgets about a live magical weapon? If I was fighting someone who could send planes after me I would blow the planes up not run around like a scared rabbit. Detective Itsuyu made a show of wanting to take Moon and her friends in on murder charges, but not being able to find the body. He also pointed out that he could take them in for reckless endangerment but he doesn't feel like filling out the paperwork for it this time, but might next time. Yes, he gave them the whole don't be a vigilante speech. I don't know why he bothered.

Haruka

December 5

Hey Haruka,

That doesn't sound half as crazy as what we have been doing. Did you know there are some old Greek temples in Turkey? Well there are, we just investigated one to the Goddess Hera. It was a hidden temple that no one had set foot in for hundreds of years. As we were looking around we found the treasure room and a spear hit me on the back of the head. Then this weird lady showed up and said I was her husband and tried to kiss me. I don't have problems with you liking girls, but I'm not interested in them, especially not nutcases who think that I am a guy. So I punched her into a pillar. The sound brought everyone else.

After she woke up again then she said that I was her husband because my magical aura felt like his. I have got to learn how to hide that better. Tomas tried to tell her that it was because of the law of contagion that my magic felt like that, but she didn't believe him. Can't say I blame her, I didn't know what he was talking about either.

Anyway, then Ryouga showed up with your letter. He had a mummy chasing him and thought he was in Egypt. Let's just say things got rather messy and we had to get out of there in a hurry.

Doctor Jones was able to find a scroll in there before we had to leave that said the talismans are in the hearts of the Outer Senshi, Neptune, Uranus and Pluto. Apparently they are a sword, a mirror and something call the Garret Orb. He thinks that is what was shown on the painting we saw of Pluto back with the werewolves.

Makoto

December 10

Dear Makoto,

Is there some rule that the better you are at martial arts the crazier your life is? Because my life has really taken a crazy turn. I am now the leader of a group of ninjas, due to my beating up their former leader in combat. The most annoying thing is that I only fought him because someone in the Yakuza family who was involved in the slave ring I messed up had hired his clan to assassinate me and I thought if I defeated him they would have to leave me alone.

Since then I have been trying to learn how to lead this group and to make enough money to keep everyone fed. Being that I have some experience with the supernatural, I have decided to go into Occult Investigations. I have hired Nabiki to do the accounting and Soun sensei has let me take over the monster hunting that he had been doing. He was able to earn enough from it for him and his three, only two now, daughters to live off of. He is making plenty of money teaching at his Dojo now and he doesn't have time for monster hunting now.

Thanks to Detective Itsuyu, I am an official outside consultant for the Tokyo PD. Think you can live with being friends with a cop?

Haruka

December 15

Hey Haruka,

Being friends with a cop, huh? I guess if it is you it's ok. Ranma says you can't try to arrest him though. We're in China heading towards Japan. It shouldn't be to much longer before we are back home. We have been stopping at a lot of training sites. Its been great. Doctor Jones is looking for info about where to find the Chinese Amazons. He says that they are suppose to be descended from people of the Moon Kingdom. Anyway just a few more weeks we should be back in Japan if nothing happens.

Makoto

Author's Note:

I was planning to get this out a bit sooner, but Real Life had other ideas. It decided that it was time for me to get my appendix removed. But I'm sure that you don't want to hear about that, so I won't say anymore about it.

Now on with stuff about the story. There is a possiblaty that I will write up some of the stuff talked about in the letters in more detail as sidestories later. So if there is anything in particular you want to hear about let me know. Also I have a new prereader, Teturo, so a big thank you to him and my other prereaders Dreamsong and Animefreak317, and thank you to beladona1 for the review I promise next chapter Ranma will get his curse and so will some other people.


	6. Chapter 6

Curses Aren't The Only Change

Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I think that you are smart enough to figure out how much of this I own.

_We have been stopping at a number of training grounds looking for information on the Chinese Amazons. Well, actually only Tomas has been helping with that. The rest of us have been using the training grounds. Minako is_

Makoto looked up from the letter she was writing.

"Ready to get going Makoto?" asked Doctor Jones.

"Yah, just a second." Makoto put the unfinished letter in her pack, "So where we heading?"

"Juesenkyo, we should be there slightly after midday."

Sure enough after lunch they were on the top of the cliffs overlooking the cursed training ground.

xxxxxxx

It was great luck, no not luck it must be the workings of the fates, that Zeus's party was here. With the Fates on her side there was no way she could not undo this little practical joke of Hermes's. She had after all learned a thing or two about making traps from him over the years. All she had to do was pull on this rope , Wait that wasn't right.

xxxxxxx

Makoto and the others watched in confusion as that idiot Hera was catapulted out of the bushes to their left into a boulder causing it to fall into the pool spotted valley below. Hera got up muttering about someone named Hermes and started randomly attacking the scenery and the ground. Now when you are on a narrow mountain pass over a valley that is suppose to be cursed the last thing you want is to have someone blasting away the path you are on, so everyone tried to stop her which is what caused that path to collapse.

xxxxxxx

"You're on my hat, cat." growled Indy who was hanging by his whip.

"Just give me a second," Artemis jumped off Indy's hat on to the whip and clawed his way up it "There." he transformed to his human form and offered a hand to Doctor Jones.

"Thanks"

"Did you know Tomas can shift wings as well as claws?"

"Well, he is half dragon after all." said Indy, "We better get down there."

xxxxxxx

Elsewhere a very old magical artifact blew up much to its Guardian's distress.

xxxxxxx

When Doctor Jones and Artemis got down the first thing they heard was a Chinese man in a dark green outfit with large black hat on his head. The hat had a star on it and the man was rather fat.

"Me no understand. How you change back with no hot water?"

This was apparently directed at Minako, but any answer she might have given was drowned out by the yelling of a redheaded girl who was wearing the same clothes that Ranma had when he fell.

"What the hell just happened to me?"

"You fall in Nyannichuan, very tragic story of young girl what drown there 1500 year ago. Now anyone who fall in take body of young girl." He gestured to the boy that was standing there, "Friend fall in Nannichuan, very tragi-"

"Yeah, Yeah, ya said hot water 'll change us back right? Where is some?"

"Is some in hut." The man pointed the building at the edge of the springs.

As everyone went into the Juesenkyo Guide's hut, a Pomeranian pulled itself out of a spring unnoticed. Once inside the Guide put a kettle on the stove and explained about the Juesenkyo curses, the whole time saying that he didn't know how how Minako was able to change back without hot water. After a while Minako got so annoyed at how he kept on about it.

"I'm a werewolf all right that's why."

"I no know if it works that way." said the Juesenkyo Guide scratching his head.

Tomas decided to help Minako out and change the subject. "I don't suppose someone by the name of Ryouga Hibiki passed by here?"

"Yes, fall in spring of drowned Phoenix. Phoenix people looking for him."

They ended up talking for several more hours and spending the night at guide's hut. In the morning the Juesenkyo Guide took them to see the Chinese Amazons that they had been looking for. According to the information they had obtained the Amazons might have some information on the Silver Millennium.

xxxxxxx

Things had been going well for Cologne until this point. Her great granddaughter had won the Village Championship and so won the right for her to be trained by Soap, the best teacher for her weapon rather then Perfume, one of Cologne's political rivals. Then something unexpected happened. In a way it was something she had been hoping and waiting for her whole life. In another way it was something that undid everything that she had been working towards for the last twenty years and had the potential to undermine her position on the Council like nothing else could.

xxxxxxxx

"You see sirs after finish Village Champion offer food to everyone and feast starts." said the Juesenkyo Guide.

Makoto was glad that they would be eating soon, even if she, currently a he at the moment, didn't have her brother's appetite she was getting hungry. She was also trying figure out what was in the dishes by scent alone.

So she...err he. didn't notice at first when his and Minako's transformation wands disappeared from their pockets and started hovering over their heads. She did however notice when her wand started sprinkling gold dust on her.

"What the hell is it suppose to do stuff like that?" Makoto asked Artemis pointing at her transformation wand.

"No, not that I know of." said Artemis feeling like he should be able to remember something about this, "Anyway it seems to be stopping now." as he said this sure enough the henshin sticks lowered themselves down into their owners hands.

"Never mind that right now." said Minako putting her henshin stick away, "It looks like this upset the natives."

They turned to see the Juesenkyo Guide being yelled at by what they hoped was a very old woman.

xxxxxxx

Cologne noticed the Jusenkyou Guide, "Please tell me that person fell into the spring of drowned boy." She yelled pointing at Makoto.

The Jusenkyou Guide was very surprised by this and replied in Chinese, "Yes elder, he is a girl, cliff collapse under them. If you find some hot water she can change back."

Balm, one of Cologne's political allies, heard this and grabbed a jar of hot tea and flung it at Makoto, who changed back to her female form.

"What ya do that for?"

Makoto didn't get an answer to her question because the Village elders all started to argue with each other.

"So, what are they going on about?" asked Minako.

"Apparently they think that Makoto and maybe you are suppose to be their leaders, but between their odd word usage and the speed at which they are talking at it is hard to tell. There seem to be some problems Makoto's curse though." said Tomas then seeing the expression on Minako's face, "I'll try and find out more information." he winked and walked over to the Elders and said in passable mandarin. "Might I inquire about the laws of the land pertaining to the matter under discussion?"

"Boys, shouldn't interrupt their betters." said a village elder in a green robe scornfully.

"You shouldn't insult the people who came with our holy leaders." was yell at green robe at the same time another one yelled, "You don't know if he has passed a Trial of Adulthood."

Green robe yelled back "Who would let a male take any of the Trials."

This would not do thought Cologne. "Quiet, this is not the time or place for an argument. We have a feast to eat and I am sure everyone wants to congratulate the young warriors of the village championship. Let us rejoice. We will meet later to confer on this matter." She said in a booming chi amplified voice. She couldn't afford to lose her own calm right now, no matter what her own thoughts on the matter were. "Now village champion I believe you have something to say."

"This is too much for me to eat, so let us share this food together as we share our joys and sorrows." As Shampoo said the traditional words to start the feast, most people decided just to relax and enjoy the feast regardless of what had just happened. The Village elders would tell them if this was the foretold event that would herald change or not.

Cologne was not able to do that though; she was after all the leader of one of the major factions of the council and whether the outsiders, no if they were who they seemed to be then they weren't outsiders and who else could they be, but things would change for her. She might be thrown off the council, which had been almost unthinkable this morning, or she might have her dearest wish come true. To avoid the first one she must start working now.

So after congratulating her great granddaughter on her achievement, first she called three people over and got to work.

"Scent, I want you to find out what Perfume's group of Ultra-Conservatives is thinking about these new events."

"Yes, matriarch."

Cologne turned to the second person there, a young artisan named Rinse, but before she was able to open her mouth Rinse said "Let me guess you want me to see what Thyme's people are up to."

"Yes, go to it." said Cologne reminding herself not to smack Rinse for her attitude since it was that attitude that made her able to gather the information.

Cologne then turned to the last person there, "Balm, I would like you to keep an eye on the reincarnations of our leaders, show them where the guest houses are and such stuff."

After Balm left Cologne went to go find the other major players in her faction. Once she found them they talked for several hours, but the only conclusion they came to was to find out what their reincarnationed leaders wanted.

And that was why Cologne was heading out to the guest house at this hour, rather then spending the time with her great granddaughter as much as she would like to. As she drew closer to the thatched roof building that served as the guest house she could hear the sounds of arguing though the front window.

"So what! They are just looking down on me for something different. Why are you running away from a fight?"one voice, a male voice that had some vocal training, said.

"I never run from a fight!"This was a female voice, so it was one of the Senshi since there was plenty of hot water provided.

"You are trying to right now, this situation is a fight just not one you win your fists and it happens to be the type of fight I have been training for my whole life." said the first voice.

"Ahem, might I ask what you are talking about?" asked Cologne

"How to deal with you guys." said The Senshi of Jupiter greatly upsetting Cologne.

xxxxxxxx

The Joketzusku must not be held captive by the past and if the past insists on showing up it would be destroyed, thought the Amazon as she readied her poison dart and fired it. She paused to make sure that the dart hit the target the was off trusting that the poison she used would be enough to distract anyone in the room, for it was not a quick acting one.

xxxxxx

Makoto felt a sharp sting in the back of her neck. She thought it was just a bug at first, but when she reached up to scratch there she found a little dart, "Oh hell"

To the untrained eye it looked like Makoto just sat down before she fell down, but to one who was trained at seeing the flow of chi it was most interesting without any great fuss the underlining structure of Makoto's chi simplely push the poison out. Cologne knew how to build many things into ones chi structure. She had lived so long because of that. Most people Makoto's age just had extra speed, agility, strength, enderence and increased healing without even knowing that was what they were doing. They mostly just thought that they were increasing chi, which truth be told they were doing as well. For someone to not only grasp that but be able to add stuff to their chi was simply amazing. Makoto was truly one destined to greatness and she and the other girl Minako, who also no doubt had great power, were truly the long lost heirs to the leadership of the tribe. But right now she must be protected by finding that assassin.

"So that stupidity of Pops actually came in useful." Cologne heard as she left. Unfortunately she was able to find no sign of the person who had fired the dart, so she headed back.

"I regret that I was unable to catch the assassin, Leract." said Cologne.

Doctor Jones knew the word Leract; It meant something like Once and Future Leader, which meant that they had managed to get themselves in quite a bit of trouble.

This mess is political somehow, isn't it?" asked Makoto.

Cologne was torn between face faulting and and smacking the insolent child for saying something so stupid. The problem was that neither seemed to be appropriate. The Lost Heir to the throne of Jupiter, the Once and Future Leader of the Joketzusku was not suppose to be an insolent child who made such obvious statements. "Yes when the Moon Kingdom collapsed our ancestors managed to escape to this planet. As they landed here they were given the knowledge that out leaders, the royal--"

"Yah, yah and you have been waiting for a thousand years for the Senshi ta show up." said Ranma, "Now why did someone just try'n poison my sister? Isn't that the last thing ya would do, ya old ghoul."

Unlike with Makoto, Cologne didn't have the slightest qualms about hitting Ranma in the head with her staff. "Don't be disrespectful boy. Unfortunately there are those who don't believe we should follow the Old Laws anymore."

"If these old laws say I haf ta be your guy's leader I agree with them." said Makoto

There were many things that Cologne wanted to say to that statement, but she knew none of them would help so she changed the subject instead. "So where did you learn that technique for neutralizing poisons?"

This lead to a long technical discussion that was great fun, for everyone who could follow the conversation. It was however a bit upsetting for cologne to find out that the reincarnations off... no Makoto and Minako, they were real people not just a prophecy anymore, both practiced Anything Goes for her memories of the Grandmaster of that school were not the best.

AN: And Now Ranma has his curse. Thanks go to Teturo for prereading and a special thanks goes to my sister, Alma, for coming up with the idea of having Hera fall into the spring of Drowned Pomeranian and Ezvir of fukufics for making the thread Shampoo style names. Also thanks to James Birdsong and chm01 for reviewing. I hope this was up to your exspections.


	7. Chapter 7

Curses Aren't The Only Change

Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I think that you are smart enough to figure out how much of this I own.

Cologne had come by the house they were staying in and offered to show them around the Village of the Joketzusku starting with the most important thing.

She showed them the Hall of Records first. Tomas thought this was a good choice, much better then the obvious choice of the Council Hall, though many would say that the forge of the marketplace would be a better choice for the most important place in a village. Never the less it did tell a good bit about Cologne political views. He turned to ask if the next place would be the second most important, but Doctor Jones was already asking her about seeing the scrolls that were inside the Hall of Records.

"I'm afraid that only those who have passed one of the trials of Adulthood are allowed in there." replied Cologne to Doctor Jones's query.

This caused Tomas to ask something he had been wondering for a while, "Might I ask what the Trials of Adulthood are? I have heard about them several times."

"Before anyone here can be considered an adult they must undergo one of the Trials of Adulthood. What trial they undertake depends on what they have been training to do with their life, for example the trial for warriors involves fighting several people." said Cologne.

"So would a musician have to preform several songs?" asked Tomas trying to sound casual.

Cologne caught the tone. "No male has been allowed to take any of the trials in hundreds of years."

"That's stupid." said Makoto

"Well, you can change it if you become our leader." the 'like you are suppose to' was not actually said, but it was heard by everyone.

They made it to the market square before anything untoward happened. Makoto was looking over the spices when she heard a sound she was sure she would come to hate, Hera's calling "Zeus". Hera was carrying a spear that she didn't know how to hold and a jug that probably held cold water.

Makoto didn't have much time to notice this however, because the area was filled with a wave of concussive force that threw Makoto into a nearby wall. Hera followed this up by jumping down onto Makoto, dumping water on her and then reaching down to kiss him.

"Get the hell off me!" yelled Makoto punching Hera in the face and knocking her into a nearby horse trough. Not completely surprisingly, since Hera was the one that had caused them to fall into Juesenkyo, the water turned her into a little dog with a fluffy tan fur and a thick fluffy tail curving over its back.

"Arf, arf" barked Hera – Pomeranian.

"I'm sure I don't want to know what you just said," Makoto said then she got hit in the back of the head by the spear that Hera had been carrying, "What the hell? Hey I reconzie this."

xxxxxxx

As Ranma was thrown into a market stall by whatever Hera did, he thought about ways to counter it. 'Probably some kinda magic,' he thought. It took Ranma few minutes to untangle himself from the stall he had landed in. When he did he was just in time to see a bunch of the Amazons hit a little dog of some kind into LEO. He also saw his sister standing over to the side looking disgusted.

"Where'd Hera get to?" he asked her.

"She fell into Jusenkyo too."

Ranma looked at where the dog had been, "Oh good," then noticing the spear laying on the ground "Isn't that the spear that you found in that temple before Hera showed up?"

"Yeah, think so" the spear rose up and hit Makoto on the back of the head again. "It keeps doing that. I'm going ta go find Doctor Jones, maybe he can read these rune thingies."

"I better go find Artemis before he gets too far away and turns into a human again." said Ranma as he left.

Ranma hadn't gone ten feet before he got hit with some cold water.

"Ah man." Ranma glared at the sky, "What did I ever do to you?" she yelled at the kami.

She didn't get an answer, but two seconds later she heard yelling coming from the opposite direction of the way she was walking. She turned and ran in the direction the sounds came from, just knowing that it had something to do with Artemis turning into a human again. At least now they didn't have to worry about him being naked anymore thanks to the werewolves.

Ranma soon saw she was right about what had caused the yell. Artemis was in human form trying to apologize for, Ranma guessed, scaring the woman, because there wasn't anything broken; Mostly though he was getting hit on the head with a staff though.

Ranma caught the staff in one hand "Hey, he has enough trouble remembering stuff without ya hitting him on the head."

"You should keep better control of your male." said the woman glaring at Ranma, all the sudden he was glad he was female right now. The woman pulled her staff free from Ranma's grasp and stomped off.

"Man, what's her problem?"

xxxxxxx

When Makoto found Doctor Jones, he was being kissed by a rather nice looking older woman with glasses, so she didn't want to interrupt him.

xxxxxxx

Tomas had, like Ranma, gotten thrown into a market stall

xxxxxxx

Minako was not thrown into a market stall instead she was thrown a ways from the others and landed on the ground. She got up and looked around trying to figure out what just happened. She thought she had seen Hera than all the sudden she was flying though the air. Minako's thoughts were interrupted by a girl around her age with purplish blue hair came up to her and said "You girl, I challenge you! Come with me to the challenge Log now if you are not a coward."

xxxxxxx

Shampoo had just become the Village Champion and proved that she was the best warrior of her generation. She had trained under her great grandmother for many years in order to win the Championship.

Shampoo was annoyed. Her great grandmother had hardly paid any attention to her since a quick congratulations last night. She was most unhappy about this, if it wasn't for those outsiders making a big deal out of themselves then--. There was one of the outsiders now, she would show that she was better that that girl, then great grandmother would pay attention to her again,

"You girl, I challenge you! Come with me to the challenge Log now if you are not a coward." Shampoo said pointing at Minako.

"Um, that's The big log that all the fights were on yesterday, isn't it?"

And now the Outsider was making fun of her thought Shampoo "Yes" she pretty much dragged Minako over to the Log, attracting a lot of attention along the way.

As Shampoo and Minako went towards the Challenge Log, most people were wondering what Cologne was planning with this. Some thought that this was all set up to show how powerful the foretold leaders were, others thought that Cologne had decided she didn't want to give up her leadership and follow a couple of teenagers despite what she had been preaching for years and this was what she was using to get out of it with minimal loss of face, still others thought that it was all part of some complicated Xanatos gambit that was impossible for normal people to understand. In fact the only people who weren't thinking one of those things were Makoto, Tomas, Artemis and Ranma who had no idea who that girl that had just challenged Minako was and Cologne who was wondering what her great granddaughter was thinking.

Minako lept up on the challenge Log balancing with an ease she would have found impossible a few months ago. She was wondering what she was doing here. Things had gotten so confusing in the last few months, ever since her parents death. She shook her head to clear it, now was not the time to think about that. She had more immediate problems to worry about, like the girl who was trying to beat her up.

Minako was able to successfully block the first four attacks. The fifth one though was a low kick that knocked her off the Log. She caught herself and turned the fall into a roll and got up growling, but the fight was already over so she clamped down on those instincts.

xxxxxx

It had been a long time since Indiana Jones had been kissed like this and he was enjoying it, but the kiss had to end sometime.

"You're a great kisser, but why did you just kiss me?" asked Indy.

"You defeated me, so I gave you the kiss of Marriage." said the lady

"Marriage," burst out Indy then visibility controlling himself he said, "I think we should talk about this in a more private place."

"You're right, no sense in acting like a couple of teenagers. We can go to my house. My son should be out right now."

Indy thought for a moment, where her house would not be neutral ground he might be able to find out more about who this lady really was. "Alright, by the way, my name is Indiana Jones. What's yours?"

"Lotion."

xxxxxx

"Just what were you thinking with that little display?" Cologne yelled at her great granddaughter as soon as they were alone.

It would not do for the Village Champion to be scared of anything, but right now Shampoo was rather scared of her great grandmother. However she didn't let it show as she replied, "An Amazon must be powerful and their leaders must be even more powerful."

Cologne smacked Shampoo with her staff. "Don't give Perfume's rhetoric to me, now the real reason."

"Why are you spending so much time with them? Aren't I strong enough?"

"Oh, child it isn't that I don't , it's just... What have I been saying in the council for the past twenty year? I know you have snuck in sometimes, even if the meetings are suppose to be closed."

"Um, that we are just the caretakers for the missing heirs and we should keep the Joketzusku in a a state that they would be pleased with, by... Oh. Sorry." said Shampoo looking ashamed then she brightened up. "Does this mean that the legend will be coming true soon."

"Maybe, now go see if the teacher you won has anything to teach you. It wouldn't do for the Village champion to rest on her lorals.

xxxxxx

Lotion's house was a nice, neat place with just enough clutter to make it look lived in. On the mantle was a framed photograph. The photo showed Lotion with her arm around a man about the same age as her.

"Who's that with you in this photo?" asked Indy

"My old husband. He was a great man and a good fighter. He died last year in a stupid accident," Lotion wiped her eyes, "I hate this stupid law. I don't want to have a new man in my life right now."

"Lady, I have to agree with you there. I haven't gotten over my wife, Marion, dieing."

"Oh, how did she die?"

"Time just caught up with her. Nothing anyone could do about it."

"Oh that's awful."

"Yeah," Indy didn't feel like talking about such a grim subject anymore so he looked around for something else to talk about and his eyes lighted on the photograph once again, "How were you able to get a photograph taken out here anyway?"

"There are people around here who are forward thinking and not bound by the past."

Indy wasn't sure were she was going with that statement "That's good, but one must respect and strive to understand the past if they want to move forward."

"Some might say that, but they aren't addressing our needs. Just you wait, this junk about the returned heirs is just going to be another way to oppress us."

Indiana Jones was thinking that Lotion's statement came out of left field even as he started defending his own statement.

xxxxxxx

Mousse came home from watching his darling Shampoo win a fight, to his mother arguing politics with someone. "Has Melon come over?" he asked.

"Put your glasses on dear." said his mom.

When he did so he saw that it was actually a man, not his mother's friend, that was sitting there. "What is he doing here?"

Lotion was not sure how well her son was going to take this. "Well you see, he defeated me earlier today."

"Mother I have studied the Kiss of Marriage law and I know you can just use the Widow Clause to get out of it."

"The what?" asked Lotion.

Mousse rolled his eyes. His mother had been helping him study the Kiss of Marriage, to find a way to be with his lovely Shampoo. How could she not remember about the Widow clause. "The clause that says that if you have been widowed then you don't have to get married to the person who defeats you."

"I had forgotten about that. I will have to go talk to an elder about this."

Indy decided that he would also go talk to an Elder as well, namely Cologne.

xxxxxxx

As Shampoo left, Cologne felt the presence of someone watching her. Once her great granddaughter left she called out. "Didn't your mother teach you not to eavesdrop?"

"No, she died giving birth to me, so wasn't able to each me anything." said Tomas, "So what is the legend you were talking about?"

Oh good it was only that odd red headed boy that had come with the heirs, no must remember Makoto and Minako. He was harmless to her. "Oh just the usual that we will become great and all." Like she was going to tell him the whole thing,

"Lord Oberon says that a new age of heroes is coming, maybe they are connected." said Tomas.

Interesting there were other legends "Oh and what is an age of Heroes?"

I'll tell you when you tell me what your legend actually is." Then the boy just turned and walked off, if he had tried a trick like that with one of Perfune's fraction he would have been badly hurt.

xxxxxxxx

"Elder, I would like to talk to you."

Thyme wondered what Lotion was coming to her about this time . She didn't have time to talk about Mousse again, she could sympathize with the boy wanting to be an adult, but he was going about it in the most boneheaded way possible. Yes Lotion, what can I do for you?"

Um, I was wondering about the Widow Clause of the Kiss of Marriage Law?"

That surprised Thyme, "I don't see how that is going to help Mousse in his quest to be an adult."

"Oh, no this time the question is about my, um, new husband." said Lotion a bit embarrassed she had been bothering the elder a lot

"What," squawked Thyme, knowing full well that the only foreigners that were in the village were with those girls who should not be here, "My, my, I don't know if I should give you my congratulations or condolences, but you said you wanted to know about the Widow Clause.

xxxxxxx

Doctor Jones and the old ghoul Cologne were talking about something as Makoto walked up.

"...mentioned something about the widow's clause." Doctor Jones was saying.

"That is an obscure clause. It would work, but it takes time, because you have to live together with the person you defeated for a while to prove that, well, that you can't stand to live together." said Cologne.

"What ya talking about?" asked Makoto.

"Doctor Jones seems to have run afoul of one of our laws." replied Cologne.

"Oh," said Makoto, "Hey if me and Minako are suppose to be your guys leaders, then can't I just say for ya to stop following that stupid law." asked

'Please tell me she is joking' thought Cologne but instead of saying that out loud she said, "I thought you said you didn't want to have anything to do with the leadership of the Joketzusku."

"Yah, but I do want ta help Doctor Jones, maybe I could just make a few proclamations then leave."

Cologne sighed, "Makoto how much do you know about government?"

"They seem to like trying to arrest me for some reason."

Cologne just put her head in her hands and wondered if the other Senshi were like this.

xxxxxx

"Let's go get ice cream." exclaimed Usagi.

"We can't right now, Meatball head, we have to figure out why the Gates of Time blew up." said Rei.

xxxxxxx

After explaining the Kiss of Marriage law and trying to explain why a leader can't just go do what they want Cologne asked "Makoto, why are you carrying that spear?"

"Cause if I put it down, it hits me in the back of the head." said Makoto "I was hoping that Doctor Jones could figure out why."

"Hand it over and I'll see what I can find out." said Doctor Jones and Makoto carefully handed it to him.

The spear had two inscriptions on it in Ancient Greek. The first was αλεξικέραυνο which meant Lightning, apparently that was the name of the spear. The other inscription was a makers mark that said By my hand I wrought this for the King of the Gods. Just as Indy was finishing the translation, The spear pulled itself out of his hands and zoomed at Makoto hitting her in the face.

"Didn't hit me in the back this time." Makoto said shaking her head to try and clear away the stars that she was seeing.

"Apparently Hera's not the only one who thinks that you are Zeus, the spear thinks you are too." said Indy trying not to laugh.

"What the hell does that mean?" grumbled Makoto

"There are a number of myths that state that Zeus had lightning bolts that returned to his hand when he threw them. I guess that spear is what the legends are based on." he explained.

"Oh that mean that you can get this thing to stop hitting me." This time Makoto was able to catch the spear before it hit her.

"No and if it came with instructions then your boyfriend destroyed them." said Indy.

"It's not Ryouga's fault that Hera attacked him." said Makoto

Indy thought back to how Ryouga threw Hera though a pillar, but he decided not to mention it. Makoto was looking scary.

Cologne would have loved to hear the whole story behind what they were talking about, but unfortunately she had something else to talk to Makoto about.

"Makoto, there will be a meeting of our faction tonight. As the heirs to the leadership of the tribe you and Minako need to be there."

"Still not sure I want to have anything to do with that leadership thing." said Makoto.

"You seemed to be interested a few minutes ago." said Cologne.

"That's when I thought I could help Doctor Jones." said Makoto

"Well if you are the leader you can help many people."Makoto looked unconvinced, "Look at least let me give you some training in leadership.

xxxxxxx

Each of the factions had their own meeting hall and it was there that Cologne took Makoto and Minako. It was a smaller building decorated with a cersent moon over the door. Inside were quite a few woman, in fact there was hardly room for Makoto, Cologne and Minako to stand.

"Normally this isn't as crowded, but this is a very important meeting, so every one is here tonight." said Cologne as they got to their places.

Makoto soon found out why it was so important that she be here, 'cause what they were talking about was her, well her and Minako. In fact they were talking about what she and Minako should be doing for the next few years.

Makoto stood up "I know I am suppose to be all diplomatic and stuff, but I don't like people telling me what to do. I will live my life how I want."

This had the effect of stopping the debate. After a moment someone thought to ask what Makoto did want.

She replied, "I want to go home. The learning new martial arts techniques part sounds good and I guess the other stuff wouldn't be that annoying, but I'm not staying here for the next few years."

Before Makoto could continue, Minako held up her hand, "There is someone behind the door there and I don't think they are suppose to be there.

xxxxxxx

The smells were something that Minako could never get used to. Unlike most everything else having to do with being a werewolf, it was hard to get away from for even a moment. Right now even though she should be paying attention to what everyone was saying, she kept getting distracted by smells, if only everyone wasn't packed so closely together ; that person was on her period, that one wasn't feeling well, the person behind the door was... wait a minute there shouldn't be anyone back there now. Cologne said everyone was inside. Feeling kinda silly she told everyone about this hoping that they didn't think she was being stupid.

xxxxxxx

The members of Cologne's faction were most impressed with this and soon had the infiltrator dragged into the middle of the hall and "asked"what she was doing listening in on a private meeting.

"The strongest should rule the Joketzusku. I am here to make sure that happens."

"You mean that you were going to try to kill our Heirs." said Cologne.

"Man didn't someone already try that." said the Heir of Jupiter.

"It wasn't us, maybe you should look to one of the other factions."

"Maybe Later, you're the one who is trying to kill me right now. Any way I can prove my strength that doesn't end in someones death?"

"No" was the answer the infiltrator gave.

Makoto turned to Cologne"Why do I want to be the leader?"

"So that people like her aren't."

"That's a good reason." said Makoto.

"Maybe she should go ask Perfume, was it, what her thoughts on the matter are because killing people to prove how strong you are is wrong."

After they "escorted" the infiltrator out, the meeting was much more productive. It was decided that due to both to the heir's wishes on the matter and to keep them safer from assassins. Cologne would go with them as their teacher and if he agreed then Doctor Jones would stay here and act as Regent, a position everyone hoped would stay mostly honorarily for the next year or so.

xxxxxx

After the meeting was over, Cologne decided it was best to make a virtue of the inevitable and go talk to Thyme. She would need to work with one of the other faction leaders to pull off this plan. With the events of the day it was not likely she could talk Perfume around this time. She didn't believe in anything but battle prowess, that normally made her easy to manipulate, but with the events of today that wouldn't work this time.

Thyme's house was interesting, the building itself was about the same as any other in the village, but it had some shiny looking panels on the roof that Cologne had been told were called solar panels. In the yard there was a big table out front that had a number of mechanical devices, a small Chinese flag and Thyme who had seen Cologne's approach.

"I suppose that you are here about your precious 'heirs' aren't you?"

That was a rather obvious statement thought Cologne, but what she said was "Yes, you know someone tried to kill one of them already with a poison dart. It didn't work, of course, but we weren't able to catch the assassin. However it seems that Perfume's people are more likely to use a more direct form of violence then that."

"Unlike you I don't try to control my people's actions."

"There is a certain level at which lack of control makes it impossible to maintain even a semblance of government."

"Did you just come here too insult me or did you have another reason?"

"Yes, I have a proposition for you. The heirs will be traveling to Japan with me to finish their education. While they are there, Indiana Jones will be the regent since he is their current guardian. You should be able to get some influence with him, since he and Lotion are going though the test phase of their relationship as the Widows Clause states they should."

"And make the official leader of the Joketzusku a male! Are you crazy."

She is taking the bait thought Cologne "Do you have a better idea? The regent must be their guardian, that is the law." cologne said oh so innocently.

"Then make Lotion the co-regent. She is married to Indiana after all."

"That is a good idea. So do you agree with the plan?" Cologne said not pointing out the fact that Lotion and Doctor Jones were not actuality married yet.

"I don't know it sounds risky."

Cologne decided to use a technique that Thyme would not be expecting, she was going to tell the truth "Then you will be taking a risk, but not half as large of one as I will be taking." she held up her hand to stop a comment from Thyme. "Someone might try a power play in the Council that I won't be here to stop or Makoto might just decide she doesn't want to have anything to do with us. Yet I can't imagine myself doing anything else."

"Alright, I will agree with your plan." said Thyme, "and just so you know I had nothing to do with that assassination attempt and I will see if I can find out who did."

xxxxxxx

Only elders were allowed into the Council Hall so Cologne was not able to take anyone with her. A fact which rather annoyed Tomas, but made Makoto and Minako relived, all that political stuff was confusing. The meeting lasted for several hours. After it was over Cologne came to tell them the results.

"The council has agreed to our plan. I believe some of them thought it was a good way to get rid of me until I announced who would regent while you are gone, but it was too late by then." Cologne had also had to promise to steal Hopposai's school of martial arts from him, but she wasn't going to mention that right now. "We will be leaving just as soon as transportation is arranged.

Xanatos gambit** - **A type of scheme in which whatever happens the person perpetrating it comes out on top. Thank you TVTropes.

AN: In case you are wondering about Shampoo's speech patterns, She can talk just fine in her native language. The Greek used in the chapter I got online If it isn't correct I am sorry.

Thanks go to teturo for prereading


	8. Chapter 8

Curses Aren't The Only Change

Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I think that you are smart enough to figure out how much of this I own.

"Who would have expected that a fake Sailor Moon would show up?" said Ami as they followed the trail of the person who had been calling herself Sailor Moon and, um, doing a much better job of it then Usagi was.

"I know," said Rei, "I saw the news on that bank robbery too. Of course, I didn't think that was Usagi."

Usagi started grumbling about how it was so unfair that someone was impersonating her.

After listening to Usagi for a little bit, Ami said, "The question is what is the fake Sailor Moon's goal? Is she our enemy of our ally?"

Rei blinked, she hadn't thought about that "An ally? Luna, could she possibly be one of the missing senshi."

Luna looked just as surprised by this idea as Rei had been. "What? No uh...

Usagi cut in with "There's just something fishy about this? Besides how dare she use the name Sailor Moon without my permission. I might get blamed for it if she does something that the police officer from the airport doesn't like." They all knew that the police officer she was talking about was the one that had lectured them after the events at the airport. He was scary.

Then just as Usagi was done talking a scream rent the air. The Sailor Senshi transformed and ran off towards it despite Luna yelling that it might be a trap. As soon as they cleared one building the senshi could see the fake Sailor Moon hanging from the end of a crane.

Once the senshi ran out to save the person they thought was their comrade, a burst of dark energy came out and encased them in a black bubble, which they could find no way was to escape from.

xxxxx

There are places in the world where time has no hold. You could spend a hundred years in one of these places and yet when you left it you had only been gone for a minute. However, it is very difficult to find and travel to these areas. The Gates of Time was built in one of these places so that it could best fulfill it's creators' objectives of predicting the future and being able to change it. It had been an ambitious project that every planet in the Moon Kingdom had been involved in. Over the centuries since the fall of the Moon Kingdom Sailor Pluto had found out about its limitations. There were some events that just couldn't be changed.

The event that Pluto was looking at right now was not one of those though. It could be changed and she would make sure it was. She just had to inform one of the other senshi of the peril that their princess as well Mars and Mercury where in. That would be done even if she had to awaken one of them to their powers

Pluto had just set the Gates to the task of finding where the other senshi were when the Gates started vibrating and showing a picture of a valley full of pools of water with bamboo poles sticking up from them. Then it briefly showed two girls, one with brown hair and one with blonde hair, falling into the pools and... then The Gates of Time, there was no other word for it, blew up.

As a large piece of the shattered gates rammed though her left arm, Pluto's only thought was that she must save her princess. Queen Serenity would be most unhappy if he daughter died again. Two seconds later she had disappeared.

Where am I? Thought Sailor Pluto through the pain in what was left of her arm. Then her eyes cleared and she saw Kunzite standing there with his back to her and she knew right where she was and what she needed to do before she died.

"Dead Scream"

Normally a Dead Scream would not have been able to kill one of Beryl's most powerful generals, but there were two factors that changed the equation. The first was that Kunzite had been concentrating all of his energy on the force bubble that he had trapped the Sailor Senshi in, so he was vanable to a rear attack for the first time in hundreds of years. The second thing was, oddly enough, that Pluto was badly hurt and if she didn't get help soon she would die, so therefore her Dead Scream was stronger then usual.

As soon as the Dead Scream tore through Kunzite, Pluto collapsed from her wounds, her staff falling on the ground beside her.

xxxxxx

The senshi were very surprised when the force bubble disappeared.

"What just happened? Why aren't we all smashed?" asked Sailor Moon

"Look over there." When the others looked where Mercury was pointing they saw two bodies. One was Kunzite's and he was quite dead. The other was someone dressed in a senshi uniform a lot like theirs, she was still alive and mostly conscious.

"Princess, I am so glad I was able to save you." The unknown senshi said "You need to go save your prince. He is fighting Zoisite right now and needs the help."

"Huh" was the only response Sailor Moon could think of to this.

"Second warehouse to the right." She said before losing consciousness altogether.

"Go! I'll stay and see what I can do." said Mercury. Moon and Mars ran off and she used her Mercenary Computer to call emergency services. She then de-transformed and used her jacket as a makeshift tourniquet on the unknown senshi's badly torn up arm. It didn't seem helping enough though.

When the unknown senshi's transformation faded, Ami started to panic. Despite her knowledge of medicine, she was not able to save the life of the person who had just saved her and her friends. She then heard a most welcome sound, the siren of an ambulance. Things were going to be alright.

xxxxx

I can't believe I was stupid enough to fall for this trap. I should have realized that Sailor Moon was fake and who was behind it, thought Tuxedo Kamen as he tried to hide from Zoisite. He was in no shape to fight with his shoulder injured like this. Maybe if he made a quick dash to the door he could make it out while Zoisite was busy slicing up those boxes.

Tuxedo Kamen had no such luck and was soon using his cane to fend off Zoisite's sword. Then one of Zoisite's attacks knocked off his mask.

"My you look handsome unmasked, but I won't let you get away." said Zoisite, "Prepare to die!"

A voice called out, "No I won't let you hurt him!" and Sailor Moon and Mars came running in the door.

Zoisite was visibility surprised that they were here.

"Attacking handsome men is bad. In the name of the Moon I will punish you." said Sailor Moon.

"That was even worse then your normal speeches. I don't have time for this now." said Zoisite and disappeared.

"Ok what was that all about?" said Sailor Moon then she looked down at Tuxedo Kaman. He didn't have his mask on"Mamaru you're Tuxedo Kaman?"

"Yes why?"

"You see I'm," Sailor Moon de-transformed, "Usagi Tsukino"

xxxxx

She had killed him. Pluto had killed him. The stupid bitch had killed Kunzite. Zoisite was not going to let her get away with this. It would be easy to track Pluto down, she had been badly hurt in this last fight, so just check at the places where healer are that the people here called hospitals.

xxxxx

After she was done talking to the police Ami went to see if she could find any information on how the person who had saved them was doing. Ami knew her way around the hospital, of course, so she was able to easily find out where the unknown senshi was. By some odd twist of fate her mother, Saeko, was in charge of that case, which made finding her even easier. She reached the correct room and opened the door.

xxxxx

Saeko Mizuno was talking with one of her colleagues about this most unusual case. At first it had seemed straightforward enough, just someone who had gotten caught industrial accident, but there were a number of odd things about it. Leaving aside the fact that the patient had been found near some warehouses in the shipping district and the fact that she had no identification of any kind on her, there was the fact that actually concerned her the patient was healing faster then she should. That was why Doctor Ono Tofu was here. He was the acknowledged expert on odd healing rates.

Doctor Tofu had just said something about the patient's chi being very old when the door opened. She turned expecting it to be a nurse, but it wasn't; It was her daughter.

"I was a bit worried about..." started Ami.

"Ah yes they did say that you were the one who found her." said Saeko Mizuno thinking and what you were doing in a ship yard at that time of day is something we will be talking about later,young lady "You probably saved her life with your first aid."

Anything else she was going to say was interrupted by a very angry effeminate man in an odd uniform.

"Hey you can't come in here." Saeko heard Doctor Tofu yell as she saw her daughter duck around the corner and she faintly heard the words "Mercury Power! Make Up."

xxxxx

After seeing the Dark General, Zoisite, Ami ducked around the corner to transform. She didn't have much time, that was her mom in there. "Mercury Power! Make Up."

By the time that the transformation was done and she stepped back around the corner the fight was already over. Wait a minute it was Zoisite that was on the floor unconscious. There was no destruction, it didn't seem like anyone had even been hurt,. "What just happened?" she asked out loud in surprise.

"Why are you wearing such a short skirt young lady?" That was not a question she expected to be asked and even worse it was her mother that asked it.

"Um well..." she stammered. Thankfully the doctor her mom had been talking to interrupted.

"Maybe it would be better to talk about that later. We had better call the police and have them take this man to one of the jails in Nerima."

Saeko made the call then said "I have to ask why in Nerima?"

"The law says that a certain number of police officers must be assigned to each ward, but due to the usual circumstances in Nerima there just isn't much use for patrol men there. We are however an ideal place for a jail that deals with people with odd abilities." explained Tofu "Now Ami shouldn't you change back? The police will find it odd to see one of the senshi here."

Mercury nodded and de-transformed. Soon enough the police came and took the still unconscious Dark General away. By the time he woke up he was already in jail.

xxxxx

At around the time this was all going on the rest of the senshi, that is Usagi and Rei were talking with Luna about the events that had happened so far.

"Luna who is that person who saved us, could she be one of the missing Senshi you were talking about?" asked Usagi.

"No, not exactly, she wasn't either Jupiter or Venus, I am sure of that. I have heard of a Senshi that because of her duty must live out her life in the Nether Realms guarding a great artifact. We might be able to find out more if we checked the Mercury Computer."

"It can do stuff like that?" exclaimed Usagi.

"It has all the records from the Silver Millennium on it." replied Luna

"Why didn't you mention this before." said Rei

Watching a cat shrug is an odd thing. "What good would it have done? Usagi, why don't you call up Ami and have her come over. She should be done with checking up on our friend.

"Ok," said Usagi as she pulled out her communicator.

xxxxx

The car trip home was very uncomfortable for Ami. She could feel disapproval radiating off her mother the whole way. Then just as they got in the door of their apartment her communicator went off. She answered it, of course, who knows how Usagi would react if she thought something had happened. Usagi didn't even stop for breath before launching into this big thing about records from the Silver Millennium and the Mercury computer.

She tried to tell Usagi that now was not a good time to talk when her mom grabbed the communicator and said. "She can't talk right now." and then she closed it.

"Mother don't..."

"Don't, don't what hang up on the people who are making you go out and risk getting yourself killed. I don't want you to see them anymore!"

"And how are you going to stop me. It's not like you are ever here anyway!" shouted Ami.

Saeko collapsed into a chair. "I just don't want to see you hurt or dead." she said very distressed.

This had the effect of short circuiting any anger Ami felt towards her mother. "I know I just have to do this, if I don't then more innocent people will die. I can't let that happen."

"Alright I won't stop you, but promise me you will be careful."

"I will mom and I will keep you informed on what is going on from now on."

xxxxxxx

Usagi put down her communicator "Um, Ami's mom seems to know about us." said Usagi.

"You girls have to be more careful." said Luna.

"What if my mom finds out, she'll ground me forever!" yelled Usagi, not listening to Luna. "Wahh!"

"Meatball head quiet down or my grandfather will hear you." Yelled Rei over Usagi's crying.

There was then a knock on the door. Grandpa Hino was on the other side. When he came in he said, "I believe that my granddaughter stopped you from asking if I remembered anything before when you healed me after that man turned me into a monster. The answer to the question you didn't ask is yes I do remember some of what happened and so I already know that you are the Sailor Senshi.

"Grandpa you could have said something." said Rei.

"I just did." said the old priest smiling, "Now did my old ears hear something about someone needing a place to stay. They can stay here especially if they are a pretty lady."

"Grandpa," Rei didn't know if she should be more embarrassed about the fact that he was acting lecherous again or that he had been listening in on them.

Usagi gave a huge yawn she couldn't help it. She was just so tired. "Can we talk about this tomorrow. I need my sleep."

That is what they ended up doing. The next day they had another meeting after school. Usagi was not munching on snacks and trying to read Rei's manga this meeting. Having Ami's mom and Rei's Grandpa here was making her nervous, besides they did have stuff to talk about this time, like who that lady that saved them was and how she was doing. That's what Ami's mom was here for, but right now Ami was talking.

"The Mercury Computer does have a lot of information about the Moon Kingdom. I haven't really had a chance to start reading most of it yet. However I did find some information that I think might account for our unknown senshi. There was something called the Gates of Time that Sailor Pluto was guarding. As far as I can tell the Gate would have had the power to bring her here."

"Then why did she show up in such bad shape?" Usagi was glad Rei had interrupted Ami. It sounded like she had been about to start talking about stuff nobody understood again.

xxxxx

The meeting was going well all things considering. Usagi was actually paying attention for once, but Luna still wasn't happy with the extra people that were here. She didn't mind too much Mr Hino, he had some experience with magic, but Doctor Mizuno had just pushed her way into the meeting without so much as a by your leave. Suddenly as Luna was thinking this she realized that she had missed something. They were no longer talking about who their mysterious savior was, but how they were going to cover up the fact that she had just, literally, appeared out of thin air.

"Look she is healing too fast to be a normal person. Any cover story we make has to take that into account if we don't want everything to unravel." said Doctor Mizuno

Grandpa Hino answered this, "Easy, anyone who has enough control of their chi will be able to heal like that so just say that she is a priestess that was coming here to train."

"Perhaps you should explain what chi is." said Luna

"That is something I would expect Mea– Usagi to ask, not you Luna." said Rei. "Chi is life force, what the Youma have been trying to steal this whole time."

"It is also what Doctor Tofu used to defeat Zoisite." added Ami.

"Wait a minute are you sure? If that is where the it came from wouldn't Zoisite just been able to absorb that energy?"

"From what I have been able to figure out chi for them is something like iron for humans. We need some iron in order to live, but if someone used a piece of sharped iron on us then we would get hurt or die."

"Wow, how did you figure that out so fast, Ami?" asked Usagi.

"Um, I had most of it figured out already. I was looking over some reports I found on Youma incidents a few days ago," explained Ami carefully not saying where she had found the reports, hacking into the police database was not something she wanted to admit to "I found it odd that Nerima did for a short time have more youma attacks the here, but they were all discovered within hours and taken care of without any problems."

"Did these reports of yours mention any Youma activity in other places besides here and Nerima?" asked Luna

"Only one or two." said Ami, "I am not sure how complete the reports are."

xxxxx

'White walls, why were there white walls in the afterlife?' thought Setsuna as she sat up 'and what afterlife would have her missing an arm.'

"I see that you are awake now, good." said the orderly as she came into the room.

"Where am I? What happened?" not the most elegant of questions but they did cover the important points.

"Um, you're in Juban General Hospital and... Here let me take your blood pressure. 130 over 85, very good. Anyway you were found down by the Yapn ship yard. They think you might have gotten caught in a fight between the Sailor Senshi and whoever they are fighting. The police want to talk to you about that when you are feeling better by the way. Now let me go get Dr. Mizuno. She said she wanted to be informed when you woke up.

Setsuna laid back and tried to concentrate on getting information from the flow of words, but she kept getting distracted by the thought that the thing she had been guarding for untold years had just blown up. Soon the nurse left and there was nothing to distract her from that thought.

xxxxx

"Doctor Mizuno, the patient in room 200 is awake. You said you wanted to be informed.

"Thank you," said Saeko, "I will go look in on her then."

When Saeko came into the room, her green haired patient was sitting up in bed. She looked perfectly composed, but Saeko could see the traces of tears in her eyes.

"First I would like to thank you for saving my daughter. I can't say that I am entirely happy about my daughters extracurricular activities, but there is not much I can do about that apparently."

"May I ask how I got here?"

"What do you remember?"

"The Gates blew up, then I was behind Kunzite. I hit hit him with a Dead Scream." This was said with such a complete lack of emotion that Doctor Mizuno knew that whatever trauma her had faced she had not even began to comprehend.

"After the barrier Kunzite created dropped, um, Mercenary put a tourniquet on your arm and called for an ambulance. We had to amputate your arm I'm afraid. " Would It be right to tell her this now, "Now since we don't want the police to know about your connection to the Sailor Senshi, we prepared a cover story for you. You are a priestess who came to Tokyo to train at the Hikawa shrine."

After she finished talking to Setsuna, Saeko headed over to Doctor Tofu's clinic to tell him that their patient was conscious and to ask him an important question. If her daughter was going to be getting into battles then she must learn how to fight and Doctor Tofu seemed like a good person to ask about that.

"Um, I am interested in knowing how you were able to defeat that guy yesterday." said Saeko, fiddling with a pen, which she often did when nervous.

"Just used some pressure points. Why?" replied Doctor Tofu.

"Would you be able to teach someone else how to do that?"

"It would be a bit difficult to teach you due to..."

Saeko almost dropped the pen out of surpise."Oh not me, my daughter."

"It seems to me that she already has some potent abilities."

"Yes, but still I am worried."

"Well I can teach her, even if what I teach her isn't useful for that then it should be useful when she becomes a doctor. She is still planning to do that right?"

"As far as I know."

xxxxx

It took a few days before Setsuna was allowed to leave the hospital. The police had asked her what she remembered, but she was able to just tell them she had been knocked out and didn't see anything. They had seemed to accept that and hadn't bothered her anymore. Now it was time to see what her new 'home' was like. There was a long flight of stairs going up to the shrine and at the top was a weird looking gate like thing that Setsuna knew was called a torii.

Looking at the view when she reached the top of the stairs she saw two being she recognized "Phobos and Deimos are here I see."

"You know their names?" said Rei surprised.

"Of course I know their names. You told me them during the Silver Millennium." explained Setsuna.

"Oh," said Rei, "Wait a minute, that doesn't make any sense."

"They are not normal crows. You said they were something like spirit guardians for you."

"Would you please stop saying I said stuff I don't even understand." said Rei starting to get annoyed.

I shouldn't be here, thought Setsuna, all I am doing is messing up their lives, but I don't have much of a chose, if I leave they might be killed.

The encounter she had a little while later with Usagi just seemed to confirm this. Usagi came up to Setsuna looking nervous.

"Yes Princess."

"Um, why do you keep calling me that?" asked Usagi.

"You mean you don't know?" said Setsuna surprised, then getting up she said "I have to go talk to Luna."

It took but a moment to find Luna.

"Why didn't you tell Usagi that she was Princess Serenity?"

"Well you see I didn't recognize her at first," said Luna twitching her tail, "then later I thought it would be best if she figured it out herself. I was really hoping she would start to remember her past life soon."

"Then I showed up and changed everyone's plans."

xxxxx

Setsuna was back at the place where she had spent so much of her life, where the Gates of Time had been. There was not much left of them now, just a few shards. One would think looking at the site it had been abandoned for years not days. The mists however showed this to be false for they were roiling with the interaction of Order and Chaos magic

She would not collapse in tears at this site. That would not accomplish anything. She needed to find out why this had happened. That was her only reason for being here now; There was no other.

Sailor Pluto gathered up the shards and started to analyze the leftover magic that was floating around.

xxxxx

"I have my report on what is left of the Gates of Time, your highness. May I present it now?"said Setsuna as soon as she made it back to the Hikawa shrine where the other senshi were waiting.

It took Usagi a little while to figure out that Setsuna had just asked if she could tell them what in the world happened to the Gates. And now she seemed to be waiting for a response, why? "Um, ya that's what we are here for."

"There are enough indications left to be able to say conclusively that the Gates were destroyed by an interaction of Order and Chaos magics."

"You mean we have another enemy out there." exclaimed Luna

"Not necessarily, Luna. Chaos or Order by themselves are not good or evil. It is the people who use the magic that dictates that." said Setsuna annoyed at being interrupted.

"So some have said, but has anyone ever met a chaos mage who wasn't an insane madman." said Luna.

Setsuna didn't bother to argue with Luna which Usagi thought was smart, but instead said, "My recommendation is that we find and awaken all of the other senshi. I fear that this Chaotic force, whatever it was, might have gotten ahold of one of them. In order to do so I have obtained several shards from the Gates of Time. With the right parts we should be able to build a device to tell us where the others are and what their names are."

Now Usagi hadn't understood a lot of this conversation, but she understood the pat about finding the other senshi. "So what do we need to do?"

"We will need a viewer for seeing the answer and a method for asking questions, your highness." said Setsuna.

After a moment of thinking Ami asked if a computer monitor and keyboard would work. It turned out they they would, but they couldn't use the Mercury Computer it would be badly damaged by this. They just ended up buying the parts at a second hand store. Setsuna paid for them saying that she had an account set up just in case, which didn't make much sence. Why would you have one set up just to buy things at a second had store? When they got back they got to work building the device. After the first few minutes Usagi was not allowed to help anymore, much to her annoyance.

The resulting contraption was not very neat, but it did work in a fashion. One could type questions in with the keyboard and the answer would show up on the monitor, or at least it had for the test questions. Now they would be able to find out where the other senshi were.

Setsuna first went for information on Uranus and Neptune, despite Luna's objections that they should get all of the Guardian Senshi of the Inner Planets together first.

_**Uranus**_

_Name: Haruka Tenoh_

_Age: 17_

_Country: Japan_

_City: Tokyo_

_Address: Unknown please rephrase question_

_**Neptune**_

_Name: Michiru Kaioh_

_Age: 17_

_Country: Japan_

_City: Tokyo_

_Address: Unknown please rephrase question_

"Hey they are older then us." exclaimed Usagi.

"Do you always have to latch on to the most useless piece of information, Meatball head?" said Rei.

As those two got into an argument again, Ami asked Setsuna, "What does it mean by unknown?"

"That is a good question. It could mean any number of things, including that one of them got a tailmon at a Shito shrine. Let me try something." Setsuna typed in 'What is the first oppertunaty to see Uranus and Neptune?'

_Both will be at the Drut party tonight. Talk to Jonu for invitation._

"Now can we see about the missing Inner senshi?" asked Luna. The question was put to the contraption.

_**Venus**_

_Name: Minako Aino_

_Age **_

_Country: China_

_City: /?/!_

_Adress: None_

_**Juiptier**_

_Name: Ma/k//ot/*o^K///i[[n]]o_

_Age;//%I_

* * *

Then smoke stated to come out of the top then the sides of the contraption. Soon it was nothing more then a piece of melted scrap. There was nothing to be done but use the information that they had gotten before it broke.

xxxxx

There were many problems facing her princess right now, but soon there would be two more people to help. It would be good to see Taseion and Musido again. Following the directions the device had given, she had called the Financial Adviser for the account she had set up at Shoko Chukin and low and behold she was able to get an invitation. When her princess had heard this she insisted on taking her shopping for a dress for her to wear. It was ... fun. However what with that, arranging suitable transportation and getting ready it looked like she would be arriving fashionably late.

Once she arrived she soon saw one of the people she was looking for Taseion, Sailor Uranus. She was looking much like she had in her last life. Remember in this life her name is Haruka, thought Setsuna. I wish I had a bit more information on her, but it can not be helped. As she was thinking this she moved across the ballroom towards her old comrade.

"Haruka, I am so glad I found you. I must talk to you." she said

The blonde woman glared at her "Who are you?"

Not the most welcoming of statements, if only she still had the Gates of Time, then she would have all the information to deal with this situation. Well, Tasein always liked plain speaking."You act just like you did back during the Silver Millennium." She would have said more, but Taseion interrupted her.

"Past life back then huh, well I guess that would make Doctor Jones happy, but I am not interested in prancing around in a short skirt."

This statement stunned Setsuna, who was this Doctor Jones? Was he an enemy? Was Taseion working for one of their enemies?

"What you can't, you must take your place as-" she stopped because she had to dodge an attack from Taseion.

Setsuna didn't hear much of Haruka's little speech. It was something about being mad at her mother. She did however get her ears filled afterwords with all of the antics that Haruka had gotten up to.

xxxxxxxx

Elsewhere

Captain Kiima of the Phoenix people reflected on the fact that her life had changed a lot in the past few months. The fact that someone named Ryouga Hibiki had fallen into the Spring of Drowned Phoenix had causes a great stir in the Mountian and it had meant two things personally for her. One was she now had a reason to leave the Mountain with Saffron, namely they must greet their new leader, which she took. The second was that the seal, that had been put in place to keep Saffron from losing control of his powers due to the strain of going though puberty by preventing him from aging past a certain point was gone. The seal was now no longer needed, for part of that power now lied with Ryouga. The seal being gone was a good thing, really, despite the fact that it was really annoying to have to deal with Saffron right now. Kiima so wanted to find this Ryouga, she just didn't know how to deal with this angsty teenage male that Saffron was right now and she didn't think she could stand this much longer.

Saffron stuck his head in the door. He now looked to be around fourteen. "I found someone whose seen that guy we're looking for."

Ok maybe it wasn't all bad, "Thank you and you are suppose to call him Your Imperial Majesty, not that guy."

"You know calling people that kind of stuff gives them a swollen head." Saffron had always enjoyed playing jokes on his guardians. It had taken him awhile to realize that now that he didn't have to worry about taking the throne and having people calling him silly things he was actually happier. He was worried about what would happen when they met up with this Ryouga though.

AN:

No I do not know if there is really a law about the number of police officers that have to be assigned to each ward in Tokyo. I think it makes sense though. If anyone knows more about it then please tell me.

I have decided to go back and revise some of the earlier chapters of this story. They really need it. There shouldn't be any major plot changes, but I would really like any comments that anyone might have.


	9. Chapter 9

Curses Aren't The Only Change

Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I think that you are smart enough to figure out how much of this I own.

"Hey Ryouga," said Haruka putting aside her bento. "How have you been?"

"I've learned a great new move while training in Tibet. I'm going to try it on Ranma next time. Oh and," Ryouga took off his backpack and grabbed a letter out of the top of it, "this is for you. They said they should be getting back to Japan soon."

"Great, so are you sure it was Tibet that you were in?"

"YES, I am getting better you know. Puck's advice was very helpful. I was able to stay with Rozi-sensai for 3 days before I got lost."

"Good" The bell signaling the end of lunch period interrupted Haruka. "Hell, I can't miss more school. Can you wait here or should I tie you to that tree?"

"I'll be fine. I told you I'm getting better."

xxxxx

"So anyway then, I heard her say something about tying him up."

"I don't know why she hasn't been expelled yet. I mean skipping half the time and getting into all those fights."

"Just look, he is just sitting there waiting for Haruka. Wonder what perverted things they are planning on doing together."

Michiru hadn't realized the person those two fluff heads were talking about was Haruka. She looked out the window and saw the boy they were presumably talking about sitting under a tree. It was then that she decided to solves some of the mysteries surrounding the girl absolutely fascinated her and she would start by following them after school.

It turned out to be a lot easier to follow Haruka and her friend then Michiru had thought. Haruka was walking slowly and keeping an eye on her friend, who kept veering off on odd directions until corrected. Once they reached an empty lot Haruka said something about seeing a technique Ryouga, obviously that was the boy's name, had learned. Then they started fighting.

xxxxx

"Don't tell me you haven't asked that girl out yet?" said Ryouga throwing a high punch. "Come on you yelled at me for that."

"It's not that simple." said Haruka blocking his fist with an upper block

That's what I said when you asked me when you asked me when I was going to ask Makoto out."

"Yeah but at least you know Makoto can keep herself safe." That was an understatement and they both knew it, "I don't think Michiru could. She's not a martial artist. She's just a normal girl."

'What was someone suppose to say to that?' thought Ryouga. It was odd for him to see a depressive fit starting from the outside and he wished could help his friend like she had helped him. Then Haruka's cellphone rang and she was all business when she answered it.

"Haruka here...Uh huh...Ok I'll be there soon."

"Off to work?"

"Ya, sorry about this."

"Hey no problem." Ryouga paused then just said "Good luck."

"Thanks" said Haruka as she left.

Ryouga turned to leave himself and ended up colliding into a aqua haired girl around his age.

"Sorry." said Ryouga

"Don't worry about it." said Michiru "I couldn't help but notice what you were just doing. Could you tell me about it?"

"Its just sparing."

"Seems a bit extreme for sparing. I'm Michiru Kaioh by the way."

"Ryouga Habiki... Hey you're that girl Haruka is interested in aren't you?"

"Let's say I would like to know her better, but I don't know how to get closer to her."

"Oh well she is...Hey I could teach you martial arts."

xxxxx

Before she entered the police station Haruka paused to catch her breath and make sure she didn't look like she was coming in to report being beaten up, fortunately Ryouga hadn't managed to punch her in the face during their sparing match. The officer manning the front desk was luckily someone she knew and he was able to direct her to Itsuyu-san. As she was going around the corner she heard some new guy asking who the kid was and she had to smile at the answer of someone who is better at what she does then you and can beat you up.

"So what is the case you want Occult Investigations to look into?"

"Hi Haruka," said Itsuyu "Did you run all the way over here? You look rather out of breath."

"Ryouga's in town. I was sparing with him when you called."

"Ah," Itsuyu pulled out a folder,"These photos are rather graphic, but I would like your opinion on them."

Itsuyu wasn't exaggerating this time thought Haruka as she looked over the five photos, every one of them was of a bloody or in other ways horrific death. "There doesn't seem to be any similarities besides the obvious in any of them."

"I know, I can't find any either. If it wasn't for the fact that they all have happened in the space of the last two weeks all to people of the same social circle, then we would not think they were related at all."

"Tell me all the facts you know."

After the meeting was over it didn't take long for Haruka to get to the hideout of the ninja clan that she was now head of. After she passed the Tsunumaki Library, she cut up an alleyway and opened a barely visible door.

xxxxx

The boss had a new job for them. She had found it though her contacts with the police. It was to track down who or what was killing some upper class twits. It was definitely more challenging the assassinating normal people that 'business men' wanted out of the way. Haruka was a much better leader then the last one. Quite unexpected for someone still in high school, but it was still true.

This could be seen in how she divided everyone up into two person groups to do different tasks of the investigation. Hinin and Asono would be staying at the base. Asono always stayed at the base and and Hinin did not have proper reserve but he could find information out well on the computer. It was good that he would be staying here for both of those reasons. It was even better that the boss knew who to put on physically tracking down where the poor saps had gone before their deaths. He had been getting bored and working with the luscious Yura was always good.

xxxxx

Ryouga wasn't sure how to go about teaching Michiru. It wasn't like he had taught anyone before, but it was the only way he could think of to help Haruka with her romance. Today he had gone for the most basic part of martial arts, how to punch, but what should he do when he met up with Michiru tomorrow. Most of the stuff he knew just wouldn't work for someone of Michiru's build, Martial arts Rhythmic Gymnastics didn't really seem to fit either. Maybe some aikido or tai chi, but they might not be useful enough.

Ryouga looked up from his thoughts. "Argg!!! Where the hell am I now!?!" Calming his thoughts he tried to remember what Michiru's aura was like so he could find her again.

xxxxx

It had been a long day and Haruka was tired. She also needed to ask Sojobo-sensei if he knew about any movements in the supernatural community. Both of these could be taken care of at the same time, by going to sleep. As she got ready for bed Haruka wondered what type of dreams she would be having if it wasn't for Sojobo's nightly training, probably nightmares.

Haruka went to sleep and 'awoke' in the dream realms ready for more training with Sojobo-sensei. She also had some questions to ask him, but he asked her one of the very questions she was going to ask..

"Have there been any signs of supernatural activity where you are?"

"Depends on if you would consider a number of brutal deaths to be supernatural activity."

"Oh were you able to sense anything from the sites of death?"

"Haven't been to them yet." Haruka didn't mention that she wasn't very good at sensing leftover magic. She wanted a good fight tonight, not lessons on how to sense magic again. "Just seen pictures, but it didn't look like it was a human that did it."

"Hum, there have been a number of disappearances among the lesser kami, but no one can figure out why or where they are going. Now prepare yourself."

xxxxx

The Drut building was a massive and impressive structure that had hosted many upper class social gatherings. Michiru hated it, but she was obligated to show up at these things. She was also still rather annoyed at Ryouga for disappearing yesterday after he had said he would teach her martial arts, so she wasn't even going to bother trying to socialize. She was just going to do what she normally did, find a quite place to play her violin. That usually kept people from talking to her. This worked for the most part until a lady with a foreign cast to her face came up and started listening. Amazingly considering how most of the people at these things acted, the lady didn't say a word until Michiru was done with the piece and had lifted her bow from her violin.

"Your music resounds with the sound of the sea." said the lady

"Thank you." said Michiru thinking that was an odd compliment.

"Can you help me get away from those men?"

Michiru looked where the lady was pointing and decided to help her, for those men looked like brutes.

xxxxx

It was obvious from the information gathered that the Drut corporation had something to do with the deaths, but they couldn't be the killers. Every one of the five people who had died had been to one of their parties, and every one of them had deposited a large amount of money into the Drut account shortly before they died. The dead weren't the only ones to have made a large deposit to the Drut account though, there was a long list of people who had also done so including a Dr Tomoe.

It was time to go talk to these people and find out what they knew. Somehow Haruka didn't think that they would tell her anything if they knew she was working for the police, so Occult Investigations would be pretending that they were with the school newspaper. She Yuka and Hinin were all the right age to pull it off. An hour later she was on the fifth person on her part of the list, Miaka Tsuno. The first four had not been home. Someone was home this time though, a nervous looking girl.

"Hi, I'm doing an articl-" before Haruka could get any further, there was a loud crash and a weasel like creature came flying though the air straight at the girl with its sickle like claws extended. Quick as lightning Haruka interposed herself between the girl and the creature she recognized as a kamaitachi and drew her sword, blocking the attack all in one movement.

xxxxx

Azoci was amazed at the stupidity of the merchandise. After getting out of its containment cell, and he would find out how that happened, it stops to talk to one of the regular party goers that provided his bosses with cover. It would be easy to distract the girl, What did the merchandise have to talk to her about anyway.

"You must come look at my new painting and tell me what you think." the blue haired girl was saying to the merchandise.

Azoci snorted a bit annoyed that he would have to wait for this artsy stuff to be done. 'Wait a minute there is no way one of the regular party goers could have a painting back there," he thought after a few minutes of nothing happening

"Excuse me," he called as he opened the door just in case he was wrong. The boss would be mad at him if he caused trouble with the idiots providing them with cover.

Not only was the room empty, but the window was open. After swearing for a few seconds he called for some backup.

xxxxx

It was when the men started shooting at them that Michiru realized that this was more complicated then she had thought. She also thought that the alleyway they were in was too narrow to maneuver in and had no idea where that last thought had come from. And now there was a guy in the way somehow... wait that guy was Ryouga.

"Can you... oh great I was able to find my way back." Ryouga looked very happy about this for some reason.

"Uh, right now we have some guys with guns after us, so could you please move out of the way?" said Michiru rather scared and confused.

What happened next surprised her. Ryouga simply grabbed a telephone pole, yanked it out of the ground and threw it towards the pursuers putting them to flight.

"My you are strong of arm, good sir. Might I know your name?" asked the lady who Michiru now realized she knew nothing about.

"I'm thinking that this is more then just romantic troubles. So what is it that I have gotten involved in?" asked Michiru

"Do you believe in magic?"

"What is that suppose to mean?"

"Because it is magic and want of its power that has caused this situation." as she said this a glowing ball of water appeared floating above her hand. "I am Salas Alae, the Sea King's daughter.

xxxxx

"Wouldn't you like to have your revenge on the people who caught you instead of that idiot?" Haruka said as she fought the kamaitachi off. She hoped she was guessing right.

"I will get my revenge on both of them. Do not interfere."

"No you won't. I tell you what will happen, you'll go attack the kidnappers and either get killed or captured again..."

"Why do you know that?"

"Because it has already happened five times."

The kimaitachi floated in the air for a moment thinking, "So what is your plan?"

"I am currently working for some people who do have the power to take care of them if they know where they are and have the ability to act. She," Haruka nodded towards the woman, "can provide both of these things if she is still alive."

"Hey since when does a school newspaper have that kind of power." shrieked Miaka 'how much of an idiot was this woman**' **Haruka mentally groaned.

The kimaitachi completely ignored the girl's squealing as he said "I will be willing to try this your way, student of Sojobo as long as she understands her place in this deal."

"You, Tsuno, are going to come with me to the police station and are going to be very cooperative or I am going to leave you here with him."

The trip to the police station was uneventful.

xxxxx

Detective Itsuyu turned on the recording equipment and said "This is a interview with Miaka Tsuno that is taking place on September 12." He then turned to Miaka. "Now where do we start... How did you get a kimaitachi?"

"Oh a party the Druts are always putting on parties. Me and Sawa got invited to the back room by her cousin. They had the most amazing creatures for sale there."

"Was that Sawa Ano who was found dead in her parents condo two days ago?" Itsuyu did not mention the state of the corpse found.

"We each brought one. Sawa is dead now and I almost got killed. Why did this happen?"

Itsuyu couldn't help but feel some compassion for the girl. Yet at the same time as he was glad that this was her reaction, instead of insisting on a lawyer. This way he would be able to help other peopl... beings with the information he was getting.

xxxxx

After Itsuyu was done questioning Tsuno, he had her escorted to a room that had some wards on it, just in case. He then talked some with Haruka about this case.

"So what we have here is a group kidnapping kami and selling them. The murders that we are investigating are from kami that have tried to escape...this is way over my pay-grade." said Itsuyu

"Why? You have worked on getting rid of slave rings before, that's how we met."

"Back then I was a member of a task force set for that exact purpose and I had contacted my superiors before hand." said Itsuyu, "Hmm, if call superintendent Sakisen he is pretty open minded about magic."

"I promised the kimaitachi that they would be taken down. One doesn't break a promise to a kami."

"Will you trust me to get things organized?"

"Always," said Haruka, "but don't take more then a few days."

After Haruka left Itsuyu made a phone call. Fortunately Sakisen -san was there and not in the middle of something either. "I have a problem that I need help with. I have enough proof to put several people away for a long time, but it is all based around magic and no jury would believe it. Do you have any advise?"

xxxxx

After all that it was most logical to go to the family home of the Kaioh's, not that Michiru's parents were home. They were never home, which suited Michiru just fine right now, because Alae-san wanted to teach her some magic.

When they arrived at Michiru's room Alae-san said "Lets start with the basics, summoning water. Watch and see if you can follow this."

"I think I see. Can I try?"

Salas nodded. The spell didn't quite work when Michiru tried. Water was summoned, but instead of forming into a ball it splashed all over the room. When the water hit Ryouga, he turned into a red bird whose wings seemed to be made of fire.

xxxxx

Ryouga- phoenix decided he had better find some hot water quick, so he could tell Michiru that it wasn't her fault. He darted out the door to look for hot water... And ran right into a woman who, well, had been carrying a pot of tea. That tea was now all over Ryouga, which meant that he was now human again which was not really helping at the moment because he didn't have any clothes on right now.

"Um, ttthis...isn't ...wwhat..." Ryouga tried to say as he ran back into the room he had just left. 'Wait a minute this wasn't the right room.'

xxxxx

The bird darted out the door before Michiru could stop it then there was a loud crash just outside the door and Reia-san, the housekeeper, came to the door.

"You know your father is going to have to hear about you having naked boys in your room."

"It is not possible. Shapeshifting takes more energy then was in that kenning." said Sala being completely oblivious to what the housekeeper had just said.

"What am I going to do? When my father hears about this!" Michiru paused for a second and realized what Alae-san had said. "Oh good, we had better find him and ask what happened." then looking over at the pile of clothes on the floor, "And return his clothes."

They found Ryouga in the room across the hall, very embarrassed and grateful for his clothes. He explained about his Jusenkyo curse. From there the conversation turned to magic and eventually wound its way back to Michiru's attempt to summon water.

"However, did you manage to get the kenning so close to perfect?" asked Alae san

"I just tried to follow the music that I heard mentally," said Michiru.

"I thought that only bards could do that. No matter, let us try the kenning again without spilling."

Several hours later, Michiru had learned a number of different shields. However every time she tried a kenning that could hurt someone the music seemed to twist away and she couldn't catch it. Alae san said that it might just be that she herself was no good at them so couldn't teach them. This was disappointing, how was she to get Alae san's cloak back this way.

When she mentioned this to Hibiki-san he said, "So it is easier to punch a magic user in the face. They don't expect it, and doing the unexpected can be a good idea in a fight."

"Do you think that will be enough to defeat them, Sir Ryouga?"

"Probably not... maybe you should go talk to Haruka, Michiru." Michiru looked at him surprised. "Not just because of that, Haruka works in the field, runs Occult Investigations and probably can figure out how to get her cloak back better then us. The fact that the two of you might maybe like each other has nothing to do with my suggestion."

Michiru laughed, "But it is a nice benefit. I will talk to her tomorrow."

xxxxx

Lunch break was the best time to talk to someone in another class and Michiru took advantage of it.

"I hear that you sometimes take jobs regarding the supernatural." said Michiru, "I would like you to do one for me."

"What is the job?"

"It is to get a silke's cloak back from the Druts."

"Where did you learn about them?"

"What do you mean?"

Haruka took a deep breath to calm down. "We should go somewhere where we won't be disturbed so you can tell me all the details of this case of yours."

xxxxx

The roof was empty. Once there Michiru told of her adventures the last few days.

Haruka's first thought was 'damn, looks like Ryouga has decided to pay me back for helping with his relationship with Makoto.' Her second one was 'finally a kami that is sensible about things.' She only said the last one out loud, in slightly different words along with an explanation of the case she was working on, of course.

Then she said, "Well this case is connected to something I am already working on so I won't charge much...just a kiss."

It was a great kiss, better then Haruka had imagined

The rest of the school day went by fast, although Haruka couldn't say what happened during that time. Ok, it wasn't until she got a phone call from Itsuyu-san saying to the police station for a planning meeting that she stopped acting like a hormonal teenager and started acting like a professorial investigator, but boy was it hard to do.

When Haruka got to the meeting room Ituyu-san was with another officer, one of higher rank the him.

"Haruka, this is Superintendent Sakisen. He is the person I talked to about that case." said Itsuyu.

"Pleased to meet you sir."

"The same I am sure. Now tell me about the case from your point of view."

xxxxx

"Kitsune are part of the Imperial Court. I believe you said one of them has disappeared recently."

Haruka hadn't said any such thing, but she thought she knew where this was going so she said," I believe so."

"A high ranked member of Imperial Court being held captive would mean we needed to act fast wouldn't it?"

"Of course," said Ituyu. "Can't let terrorists harm a member of the Court."

"Now let's get down to planning this. Do you know anyone who is good with magical shields?" asked Sakisen

"I might, sir. Why?" replied Haruka.

"You will probably need one. I want your team to be on the strike force that goes in first. Your job is to go in, determine that this is actually happening. Then if it is open a back door and signal the SWAT team to come in.." said Sakisen.

"And if there isn't a back door?"

"Then make one. You will have to take along an officer on this, of course."

"Right, but there is something I should tell you about the, um, person I know who knows about magical shields..."

xxxxx

"Really boss is the tux a good idea. You are a girl after all." said Hinin.

"Me showing up in a dress would be more of a cause for comment." replied Haruka in tones of do not suggest that again.

"Just don't screw this operation up. We need to catch these perps." said Officer Tayoshi.

"I know that, and believe me, I have even more to lose then you if they get away. Don't forget to play your part properly. Most men would die to have a beautiful woman like Yuru hanging off their arm, so at least pretend to enjoy it."

xxxxx

'They are definitely keeping all of the exits quietly controlled. I wonder if that is in response to Michiru saving Salas or if it has always been that way and she just found a hole by chance' thought Haruka as she moved towards the front doors. They got in just fine though.

xxxxx

'Well it looks like Yuru was able to get Tayoshi to dance, good he was just so stiff.' Haruka turned away from them before anyone wondered why she was looking at them. Then she saw Michiru standing alone. 'I have enough time before...besides it would be good to be at the other side of the dance floor by then' thought Haruka.

Haruka was about to step forward and ask Michiru to dance when someone spoke to her.

"Haruka, I am so glad I found you. I must talk to you." said a green haired woman.

"Who are you?" 'And more importantly how do you know my name and what are you planning?' thought Haruka.

"You act just like you did back during the Silver Millennium." said the woman smiling. She looked like she was going to say more, but Haruka interrupted.

"Past life back then huh, well I guess that would make Doctor Jones happy, but I am not interested in prancing around in a short skirt." Hopefully that would get her to shut up without anyone else figuring out what the idiot was talking about.

"What!?! You can't, you must take your place as-" Haruka tried to cover the idiot's mouth before she got them both killed, but the idiot was good at dodging probably got lots of practice if this was how she normally acted. 'Great we are starting to attract a good bit of attention, just what I don't want. thought Haruka then she got an idea for how to explain away their actions.

Pitching her voice to carry Haruka said "I don't care what she told you or how much she is paying you. I am not going to pretend to be a good little girl for my mother. I bet that anyone here can tell you I wasn't very good at that anyway. This is even stupider then her attempt at sending me to that boarding school. Now," she walked up to Michiru, "would you like to dance?"

At the end of the dance the two of them slipped though the door that Salas Alae had told them about.

xxxxx

The place was even worse then Haruka thought it would be. It was nice looking. The fools had taken the time to make the place ascetically pleasing. But now was not the time to look at the architecture. How was the time to disable the guards.

"Stand back. If any of them try to use magic use a shield to stop it." Haruka told Michiru.

"Right"

One person tried just that. It didn't work. After a few minutes the hired goons ran off and the two of them chased after them.

The next room was a tiny bit fuller then the last one. There were about thirty goons instead of five, and someone on an elevated platform who was obviously both a leader and a drama queen. He proved this when he opened his mouth.

"Come on, you didn't expect that I would just let you waltz in here-" suddenly he felt the edge of a blade on his throat.

A voice whispered into his ear, "No the boss expected you to expose yourself to gloat. Now call off your guards."

There was then a large explosion that rocked the building down to the foundation.

"Sounds like Hinin opened the back door."

"There isn't -" one of the goons started to say.

"There is now" said Haruka hoping that not too many explosives were used.

xxxxxx

The wind from the sea was cool and refreshing. They had come here to see Salas off. Now that she had her sealskin coat back she was going home.

"Thank you. Michiru for your help. Take with you my blessing. You will never have to worry about drowning and all the creatures of the sea will gladly help you, my friend." said Salas before flinging on her cloak and swimming out to sea in sealform.

AN:

I case you are wondering neither Haruka or Michiru have been having these dreams that they did in cannon. I figure that they wouldn't start having them until Dr Tomoe had gathered enough power to be a threat, interestingly enough after "making the purchases" he was planning to he would have. Also in case you were wondering kitsune being part of the Imperial Court is from an actual myth.


End file.
